Almost time to go back to work, our leaders are working hard to make a safe return to work possible, yes the new reality is different, until the vaccine is out there, I see will be hard to attend music festivals, and big sport events, the 20 – 100 – 6, rule will continue for years to come. By now after 30+ of quarentine, you learned a new skill or too. You learned you can use youtube and learn how to start a business at home, basic jobs, like done by a virtual assistant, if you are a entrepreneur you used Fiverr and got a logo and a brand new website, and now you are ready to roll.
Now the bad news, in this working from home part 5 we will cover the dark side of the Internet Gods, (I promise Part 6 will be lighter) also know as any employee or robot working for one of big web companies, are always watching, and the Terms of Service (TOS) are always changing, if you are making a good income you always checking for the TOS changes, or if you really making money from their traffic, ads or exposure, you hire a compliance officer/person, if you dont sooner or later you are going to get an email saying, we warned via email (go figure how) and since you did not comply (??) we are terminating your account under TOS article 21.782, 456.1298, but if you like to appeal there maybe a slight change we can change our minds bla bla, obviously you will appeal, and two days later the same robot (or nameless person) will email you saying you appeal was denied.
In this “Working from home part 5“, I want to save you some pain, and financial distress by sharing some basic tip, no matter what platform you use to run your business, always keep a physical record, of who are your clients, full records including phone and email, but law since they contacted you, you have the right to contact them. Everyone that has not purchase from you yet, but have shared interest in your product and service, is another mailing list.
The money is on the list, even though I recommended online drives, and they are important remember, they are TOS terms also, and God forbid one day you miss the email saying you have a picture of a puppy or OMG a gun, and will terminate you online storage, so keep a physical copy on a drive not connected to the Internet, client list are normally small and will fit in any USB drive, and if you can burn a cd, just in case.
On a perfect World, if you are using any online service and making more than US$ 25 / week, which generate Income tax, because the online companies will report you, they government should have a say on your sudden reduction of income, any termination should be handled by a government appointed auditor, during the investigation the stream of income should continue, no matter what the TOS says, and you should have 2 appeal, one handled by the government alone, and the second handle by an online panel of your peer, you pay income taxes on your online income, the government should have a say on any termination that will reduce the amount the income taxes paid to the government.
You still need those online big companies, for now, how many great musicians started online, but as soon you cross the financial line, for some will be 50K others will be a Million, start preparing for the day that TOS email will come, trust me it will.