If you are a small business owner, coach, expert, entrepreneur, therapist et al you will I’m guessing have heard by now about the new regulations around GDPR.

There has been a host of scaremongering going on with people saying in hushed tones, did you know that the fines can be £20 million! What???

Don’t panic, I have it on good authority that both you and I are highly unlikely to be fined astronomical sums of money (or hopefully any money at all), but we do need to ensure that we are playing by the rules.

Some of it is confusing and does seem rather ambiguous though, I must confess, I have been given contradictory advice by colleagues (one which came via her lawyer) and I have been quoted in excess of 5k for a legal team to help me get my stuff in order. Ouch, I won’t be doing that! While I feel concerned and a bit wobbly about all of this, at the same time I feel as brand owners or sole traders we should embrace this and use it as a great reason to ‘cull’ those who are on our mailing lists by accident and connect with those that really want to engage with us.

Fortunately, I connected with Suzanne Dibble who is a small business law expert, formerly she was a business lawyer for the world’s largest law firm and knows her stuff. She saw lots of inconsistent advice being bandied around so realised she needed to address a few key issues such as…

What GDPR really says and how to comply:
– do you need a double opt-in post GDPR
– can marketers rely on the legitimate interest ground for processing
– what are the new conditions for consent to processing
– data transfers to the US e.g. if you are using Mailchimp, Aweber, Infusionsoft etc.
– how data subject rights are being enhanced
– what the new definition of sensitive data is and how to get consent to process this
– whether you need to get fresh consent from your email list
And much more…

Suzanne has put together a special GDPR Pack comprising:

Email for refreshing consent | GDPR compliant privacy policy | GDPR checklist including processing checklist | Data processing inventory | Legitimate Interests Assessment form | Data transfer checklist | Marketing checklist | Records retention policy | DPO checklist | Employer checklist | Employee privacy statement | Employee subject access request form | Response to employee subject access request | Processor agreement | Subject access record | Data breach record | Data breach checklist | DPIA form

To purchase the pack, click here>>

As you know, if you read my blogs I don’t have affiliate links or commission, but for the purposes of transparency if you use this link I do get a kick-back, so if you do buy it – THANK YOU!

Let’s Make GDPR Into ‘Good Deeds Pay Rewards’…

Just one more thing, I’m sure that you, like me, have received some emails already from colleagues and contacts asking you to re-sign up to continue receiving their content. A few weeks ago before I was fully aware of the implications, I opened my inbox and found about 4 such emails, I remember thinking…’oh, yes I must do that, I do want to continue to be on that coach’s list, and yes I like getting the tips from that therapist’….and then I promptly went back to what I was doing and forgot.

I’ve since painstakingly found those requests and re-signed because I asked myself how I would feel if that was mine that got overlooked? I have a huge list and I suspect lots of people won’t stay but that’s fine, however those who do want to hear from me, I SO hope will take the time to just make the click straight away.

So, here’s my suggestion, as small business owners, influencers, et al we are trying to make a difference, sadly I suspect that enforcing these new laws won’t catch the spammers and those who aren’t authentic about their marketing, but like it or not we have to comply so let’s use it as an opportunity to support each other. Do your good deed, re-sign up to someone else now.

Remember someone else’s success is not your failure. Let’s change GDPR to Good Deeds Pay Rewards, after all… All ships rise in high tide!!!

P.S. When I send you my ‘please stay with us’ email …please do!!!