Hi Reader!

Before my mini-sabbatical week, a client and I were chatting about a new licensing deal she was exploring.

As part of that discussion, we needed to know how to terminate another contract at the end of the existing term. (Because that licensing deal wasn’t profitable and the new company had expressed interest in taking over that product line when her old contract expired.)

In many contracts, renewals happen at the end of the term in one of three ways:

• Automatic renewal without any action by either side
• Renew only if mutually agreed
• Renew only if the party specified tells the other party it wants to renew

And usually, inside the contract is a cutoff date. And you must let them know if you will/won’t be renewing before that date. (This can be as long as 6 months before the end of the term for physical products.)

When I found out that my client hadn’t calendared the renewal window for this contract. I pulled up all of her existing contracts and helped her schedule them in her calendar.

I scanned each of her contracts and looked for:

• Contracts that would automatically renew unless she ended them.
• Contracts that required her to consent to the renewal.
• Contracts that required the other side to consent to the renewal.
• Contracts that had an automatic expiration date.

That way, she could send an email at the right time, either expressing that she wanted to renew or let it expire, depending on what made the most sense.

You might not have licensing agreements that need to be renewed, but you might have other legal “renewal” windows. For example:

• Trademarks must be renewed within specific windows, or they are automatically cancelled.
• If you are an LLC and your state requires ongoing reports, failure to file those reports can result in the cancellation of your LLC.
• If you have a DBA/FBN/assumed name, those have to be renewed every several years.
• Your city/county business license is usually a yearly renewal.

👉 Your action item: Schedule any ongoing renewals that you have in your business. This could be a recurring task in your project management software, a calendar appointment (make sure to set it to recurring if it’s an ongoing renewal), or a page in your bullet journal that you refer to each month.

Did you complete this task? Come share your thoughts about how you keep track of these deadlines on LinkedIn.

That's all for this week Reader! When you signed up, my promise was to add ease to the legalese of running your creative business. I'd love to know your thoughts or challenges with this week's task. Reply to this email and let me know.

And a big thank you to the four of you who responded last week! You rock! 🙌

Chat soon,

P.S. Here’s a quick question for you: what’s the contract clause you see most often that makes you pause or hesitate before signing? Hit reply and share it with me, and help shape a new resource I’m building.

Join me for a live Q&A session on September 10th at 10 AM PDT | 1 PM EDT. The session is hosted by Darren Di Lieto of Hireillo. (If you aren't familiar, it's the platform I used last year to find the illustrator for my book cover project.) I'll be answering all your questions on contracts, copyright, and more. Join us for $20 here.

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❤️ Easy to understand legal resources should be available to every creative, regardless of their financial situation. If one of my resources has helped you and you would like to say “thank you”, you can make a contribution here. ❤️