Slides of a presentation given at the 2014 Big Hearted Business (un-)Conference #BHB2014 in Melbourne Australia - focusing on how to think about negotiating - planning for a conversation that results in mutually beneficial outcomes - particularly for creative businesses.

1. Legal schmeagal:
How to read a contract,
protect yourself and ask for
what you want
Cathryn Nolan, NolanLegal (www.nolanlegal.com.au)
(Un-) Conference 2014@nolanlegal https://www.facebook.com/nolanlegalau

2. Let’s start with the hard stuff
Brace yourselves: I’m going to use the
“C” word
CONSIDERATION!

3. Money Matters
A lot
And at the same time, not as much as other things
We value what we can measure – we can count
and compare
Most people have some kind of issues around
money – do you know what yours are?

4. Negotiating
Isn’t only for the adversarial and hostile
You can be liked and still ask for what you want
(in fact, you can be liked and get what you
want)
Using agents and advisers can remove the
‘personal’ elements

5. Asking for what you want …
Is harder for some than for others
Necessarily requires you to know what you want
… and to have some understanding of / belief in
what you’re worth
Involves risking learning that someone else doesn’t
value what you’ve got (or just can’t afford it)

6. Ask yourself:
 What do you value?
 What do they value?
 What’s easy for you to do?
 What’s easy for them to get?
 What do you have that’s
unique?
 What unique needs to they
have?

7. So how do you prepare?
Value
Licence or
assignment?
TimeContext
Costs
Other
opportunities
There’s no one answer;
Get advice
Too much information is
not enough…..
… but don’t spend so
long planning that you
don’t start a
conversation

8. BATNA: The best alternative to negotiating
an agreement
“Best alternative to a
negotiated agreement” –
your bottom line (or the
buyers ‘top line’)
Ambit – your best and
biggest dream? The
buyer’s dream price? The
best possible result?
Seller’s Ambit
Seller’s BATNA
Buyer’s BATNA
Buyer’s Ambit
Negotiationzone
NegotiationZone
Negotiation – Price,
Exclusivity, time
commitments, up
front payments,
timing of payments,
permitted uses etc

9. How do you find your bottom line?
List out the alternatives
Evaluate each of them
Which has the highest value for you? This is your
BATNA
What’s your ‘bottom line’? These are the terms
(not only price) without which it’s not worth it.

10. ZOPA: the zone of potential agreement
 “Zone of potential
agreement” – the room that
you have to make an
agreement where both
parties will be happy
 Identifying the ZOPA means
you need to identify the
other party’s BATNA
Seller’s AMBIT
Seller’s BATNA
Buyer’s BATNA
Buyer’s Ambit
ZOPA

11. There is no one size fits all solution …..
 Make a checklist of what’s important to you – and what you think
might be important to them
 Think about opportunities to draw out what’s really important – two
equally appealing options to you might not be equally appealing to
the other party
 Money is not the only consideration – time, exclusivity, location,
collaboration……
 You need bargaining power to negotiate – you won’t always have it
 Even when you can’t negotiate, you need to understand the deal
you’ve entered into

12. Some useful resources
 www.artslaw.com.au – Arts Law Centre of Australia: Australia’s independent
national community legal centre for the arts, a not-for-profit company limited by
guarantee. It provides free or low cost specialised legal advice, education and
resources to Australian artists and arts organisations across all art forms, on a wide
range of arts related legal and business matters.
 www.creativecommons.org.au – Creative Commons provides copyright licenses
to facilitate sharing and reuse of creative content
 Collections Agencies – eg. Copyright Agency / Viscopy www.copyright.com.au ,
APRA | AMCOSS www.apra-amcos.com.au , Phonographic Performance
Company of Australia (PPCA) www.ppca.com.au