Your name, your work, your data and your downside — locked down in a weekend, without a solicitor on retainer.
- £29
- 8 modules
- Updated at every Budget
- 30-day refund
You own the copyright in the work you make until you assign it in writing. Most clients assume the opposite, most freelance contracts are silent on the point, and the disagreement surfaces only when the relationship has already gone wrong. Your business name, your data obligations and your insurance sit in the same category: things a solicitor would sort out in a day, if you had one on retainer.
This course is the weekend version. A complete annotated freelance contract with a negotiation note under every clause, a trade mark application you can file yourself, UK GDPR at the scale of a one-person business, and insurance sized against your largest contract rather than against a quote form.
What’s inside
- Your name: sole trader naming rules, passing off versus a registered mark, and a domain and handle sweep
- Registering a trade mark yourself — searching first, choosing classes, the fees, and the opposition period
- Who owns the work: assignment versus licence, moral rights, portfolio rights, and the client who claims everything
- A complete long-form freelance contract, annotated clause by clause with what to offer when they push back
- UK GDPR: controller or processor, the ICO fee tiers and exemption check, a privacy notice, and the 72-hour breach plan
- Insurance by work type — professional indemnity, public liability, employers’ liability, cyber and kit — sized against your largest contract
- The client clauses never to sign as they stand, and the redline to propose for each
- The annual protection review
The templates
A name and domain sweep, an insurance sizing calculator, an ICO and GDPR checklist, the clause red lines, and the annual protection audit.
In practice
Start with the name and domain sweep, because it is quick and it occasionally changes everything. Then the contract: read it clause by clause with the notes, decide what you will offer when a client pushes back, and save your version. The insurance sizing calculator and the ICO checklist take an hour each. The annual review is a one-page audit you repeat every year.
Buying more than one? All ten 2026/27 courses, 262 pages and 44 templates, are £119 against £328 at full price. See the full course list.
Not for you if: you are dealing with an active dispute, a shareholder agreement, or anything with material liability — take it to a solicitor.
Straight answers
Can I really register a trade mark without a solicitor?
For a straightforward word or logo mark in one or two classes, yes. The course walks through searching first, choosing classes, the fees and the opposition period. Anything contested belongs with a professional.
Do I need to register with the ICO?
Most freelancers who process client data do, and the fee for a micro business is small. The checklist runs the exemption test so you know rather than guess.
Is the contract usable as it stands?
It is a complete long-form contract, but the value is in the notes: which clauses matter, what to concede and what never to sign. Adapt it to your work before you send it.
Which insurance do I actually need?
It depends on how you work, which is why the course sizes cover by work type and by your largest contract, rather than recommending a blanket policy.
General information, not tax or legal advice. Figures checked against HMRC and other primary sources at publication — see our editorial policy.