#113 Chat GPT and Copyright
Today I’m going to talk about something that is all over social media at the moment and has been coming up frequently when I talk with my clients and business friends. And that is, who owns the copyright if I use Chat GPT?
In simple terms, Chat GPT is a powerful AI tool that can produce copy for you and assist you in many different ways in your business. However, just like with any tool we need to decide on using, we need to know what the value add of Chat GPT is. It’s also important to understand what the risks and implications are.
So what is copyright? I explain what it is and how our original creative works are protected in Australia. I also address the question I get asked a lot, which is, ‘do I own the copyright or does Chat GPT?’
While this is a valid question, copyright legislation is framed around original works being created by individuals. Therefore, I encourage you to think about the question I believe is much more pressing. Is the content Chat GPT creating for you original, or is it infringing on someone else’s copyright?
If you intend on using Chat GPT in your business, I encourage you to make sure you've got your systems and processes developed in a way where you have your checks and balances, you are satisfied that what you are putting out into the world is your work and you can be confident that you're not copying somebody else's.
I hope today’s episode empowers you with the knowledge and tools to help you move forward in your business with confidence.
Full Transcript:
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Tracey: [00:00:00] Welcome back everyone to another episode of the Rise Up in Business podcast. Today I am joined by a guest that if you've been following me for a while, if you've been listening to this podcast, you'll have heard me talk about her time and time and time again, and there is good reason for that. Today I am joined by my business accountant, Andrea Pearce. Andrea, hello.
Andrea: Oh, hey.
Tracey: Thank you for joining me on this episode. We've been talking about this episode for a while and I'm so excited that we're diving in today.
Last week on the podcast I talked about what business lawyers actually do, and that was a really nice segue into talking about you [00:01:00] and accountants that niche in and specialise in supporting small businesses because like I said, in last week's episode, there's lawyers and there's lawyers.
Just like there's GPs and there's GPs. And guess what? There's accountants and there's accountants. Yeah? What I was saying there is we really need to work out what it is we need support with in our business, and then reach out to the experts that are going to be able to provide that for us. So when we're talking accounting, what I have learnt recently is that there are a lot of small business owners out there who don't realise that their mum and dad tax return accounting is not necessarily the best fit for their business accounting
Andrea: Great question. There's also a big difference between people that are accountants and people that are tax accountants for a start, and there is a variety of reasons and considerations that we need to make for somebody that's in business that are so incredibly different to [00:02:00] those who are earning salary and wages and have rental properties.
Your typical tax returns that some of the other type of providers like ITP and H&R Block provide. Now they're absolutely essential to the industry, but they're actually not where you get the technical advice and the optimum results when we talk about business accounting and tax.
Tracey: Tax. There's that word. It's tax, isn't it? So when we are talking small business, I say often in my space, DIY is for Bunnings, not for your legals. But I think we really ought to extend that because accounting in your business is not something you should be DIYing either.
Andrea: No, that's absolutely right. There is just so many considerations to take into account, even in the income tax return preparation, not to mention the preliminary and the proactive advice and strategies that we can offer. As far as I'm concerned, it's never just about getting the tax return done. That is a compliance and we wanna [00:03:00] get that as accurate as possible and as advantageous as possible, but there is a whole lot of other long-term issues and strategic advice that we need to take care of as well. We're talking about the long game here. We are not year to year. And we can do things in our business, if not educated or seeking the right advice, that can absolutely be disadvantageous.
Tracey: I wanna talk about profitability, and then I'm gonna ask you, what are the most common mistakes that you see when business owners come to you for the first time? But before I get to that, I just wanna talk about profitability. We all know that cash flow is the cornerstone for every small business.
We know that, but you can't wing it. I'm risk averse for my clients. You are my business accountant. You're also my personal accountant because it's all into one. You need to know all the things and you need to know my visions and my plans, and you do a stellar job, which is why I do talk about you so often and send all of my clients your way. But it's the cash flow and it's the planning and you can't wing it. [00:04:00] So simply rocking up and deciding to launch a business because it'll be right and not wanting to spend any money and not wanting to get any advice, and not wanting to get your structure set up or get anything in place hoping that enough money will come in to support what needs to go out.
I think that's volatile, fraught with risk. It makes my heart stop almost when I hear people that take that approach because we need to look at profitability, don't we?
Andrea: We absolutely do. I think the first consideration here is knowing the difference between cash flow and profitability. They're two very different concepts, but we need to look at them in conjunction with each other, because something out in either one of those is going to cause ongoing issue. Profitability though is so important and it's not just at the level of what is the profit I'm putting in my tax return, which people get hung up on. I talk about the concept of macro profitability and micro profitability. Macro profitability being the business [00:05:00] overall. So most people understand this. It's a profit and loss statement. They don't really understand what it's telling them, but they can relate to it.
There's a whole nother level of profitability, below that, that relates to each and every service or product that you are offering. And what the margin is on that. I've done profitability analysis with lots of clients and helped them see that while they were making profit on one particular product, there was another that they were losing on and it was affecting them both cash flow and obviously profitability, but from a macro perspective, you can't see that.
Tracey: Can I just go back a step? You said a moment ago there's a difference between cash flow and profitability. What's the difference? Because I know that there are so many listeners that are gonna be scratching their head going, what?
Andrea: Yeah. Right. I have a bit of an analogy for you. So if I think of cash flow as cardio training, if we were going to the gym at some stage in our life, perhaps we've understood that. So cardio training, we are moving the blood around in our body or [00:06:00] in our business, and it can move from different areas.
So it fluctuates. It's in, it's out, it's here, it's there. It doesn't necessarily tell a story in itself, but it is there. Profitability on the other hand, if we're thinking about the different financial statements, we might look at is more like strength training. So if we are pulling the levers of different things in our business, we're increasing the muscles of the various body parts.
So we may be focusing on our sales. So that plays a really important part. It's the top line of the profit and loss statement. Or we may be reducing expenses, which is another muscle group, so to speak. We bring together the cashflow and the profitability to bring an overall picture to the business. Another analogy I like to you is, like a Fitbit or a, um, Garmin watch, we track our metrics. We can see how we're improving. We can actually use a lot of the data we have available to do the same thing when we think about it almost like the cardio and strength training. [00:07:00] Now it's really important to understand this for the long-term viability of business. And then there's a lot of people I see that are not educated enough in this space. Now, don't get me wrong, numbers are a language that we need to be taught. There is no criticism of people that don't understand it, but I think there's a lot to be said for encouraging people to take ownership of this. It is super
Tracey: That's the key. Encouraging people to take ownership and I'm not backwards in coming forwards and when I share my business journey and initially numbers is something that would send me into overwhelm. I didn't want to focus on it because I was just really good at my particular craft and I wanted to focus on that.
I've made no secret of that, but on my journey, fast forward to four years and now knowing how to use my Xero file, knowing how to read it, having quarterly strategy sessions with you, having my bookkeeper all over everything so I can put my hands on anything at any time and understand it and know what it means is something I'm really proud of and something I really look forward [00:08:00] to.
If you had've told me that four years ago, I would've laughed at you and said, there's no way. But part of it was because I felt stupid, because I thought, I'm a lawyer, I'm here, I'm running this. I should know all these things, and I'm actually really embarrassed.
Andrea: Exactly, and I can completely understand that. And there's absolutely no judgment. If we're in interest of vulnerability, to be completely honest with you, the things that I've learnt by being a business owner in the last 10 years has put me in a position to be able to advise the way I do. It is not the accounting degree I had or the ability to read financial statements.
It's being in the trenches with you guys and doing it. And it's a journey. I say that every time, it can evolution, but please don't beat yourself up about not knowing this stuff or not having done it. There's always a time, and an investment that you can make into yourself and the longevity of your business.
Yeah, absolutely no judgment, and I'm not surprised that people don't have this information. just add to that if I can, is that we have a plethora of information available to us at the click of a And while [00:09:00] that is youthful, we're in an age where we almost think that's enough information and that'll do me. I've got enough, I'm gonna move forward. How hard can it be? And I think there's a lack of awareness in that space about just how much more you can learn with the right advice.
Tracey: I think what we are faced with at the moment on many levels is a crisis of knowledge. And just because we can Google something doesn't mean that what we are putting our finger on is right. But also it gives a false sense of security, I think, because we can do a quick Google, do a quick GPT Chat question.
Someone will tell us something fantastic. She'll be right, and away you go. When I think what we're not doing is taking the time to inform ourselves as business owners of all the things and making those considered, calculated decisions and steps forward. So I think it's a crisis of knowledge. Do you see that?
Andrea: Yes And I loved that you you've used that expression, I think that really, um, describes it and defines it because it's a commodity we can use [00:10:00] and we all do it. We all look how to unlock the screw on the copy machine so that we can do it ourselves. But when it comes to business and the sustainability of the business and our obligation as business owner, it's really not something we can take a risk with, I believe.
Tracey: I agree. I agree so much. And now I wanna ask you the question that I alluded to a moment ago. So when business owners come to you for the first time because they've been DIYing it or they've been with a small family tax return type accountants. When they come to you and they bring you their business, what are some of the most common mistakes that you see that they're faced with or that you've gotta deal with?
Andrea: Yeah, absolutely. So every time I have a new client come onboard, there's three things that I look to educate them on. The first of that is how GST works and impacts on business. The second is on structure and what we mean by that is what you're operating out of, for example, sole trader, company, family trust.
And the third is how income tax is calculated. Now I [00:11:00] deal with people that have been in business for as long as I have, and when I sit them down and explain that, it's like their mind is blown. A whole new world has opened up and the penny drops. So the mistakes that I see are just a lack of education and a lack of knowledge in the space of something that's so important. I see misinformation. If I can give you an example, I had a client come to me during the week and the advice that they'd had from their accountant in inverted commas was that, when's your stop time? Just the word that we use, ie. At what point are you gonna stop this business? So the person who had been in business for 18 months, and when I had a look at both the profitability on a micro and a macro level, and I spoke to them, there was no indication that a stop time should have been the and what it was, was a lack of sales of which they were fully aware. So the capacity was there, the ambition was there.
All of the things that make for a sustainable good business in the future were there. [00:12:00] But the advice they were given was short term and probably coming from a place of misinformation initially. And this is why not all accountants are created equal.
Tracey: So when you say stop time, what's the stop time? So the accountants looked at it, this is not doing great. We've gotta get out of this?
Andrea: Yeah, and what comes from that potentially is a hangover of debt causing even more issues for this particular person. A, you know, a busted mindset and it wasn't solution driven. So be very careful who you choose to give you the advice in business or make sure you're getting advice in the first place and not generic.
Tracey: And something else that I really love just to continue on that theme, is when you've got that specialist niche, business accountant, the strategy that you can undertake around tax is mind blowing, and I personally have found it mind blowing. But the feedback I get from my clients that you now look after is, it is mind blowing.
So not only are you a safe space and you let us ask all the [00:13:00] questions and there's no judgment, and you always fill the gaps and make us feel really supported because we are really supported. But the value that you add in terms of educating us around the tax implications and tax options, but the strategy to go forward, holy dooly.
I feel empowered in my business knowing what I'm doing with my tax, what I'm doing with the way I am dealing with my finances. And I know because they talk to me and they share it with me that so many of my clients feel the same way. It's that advantage you get with the tax strategy and planning.
Andrea: Yeah. Thank you, Tracey. That gives me all the feels. It absolutely is the edge people. I can see it myself and I'm certainly not blowing my own trumpet. I am. But there's opportunities there that are honestly being missed. And the ability to be able to make informed decision is gold and you can't have that without the education.
And we have to look at the future rather than the path and [00:14:00] historically, The role of an accountant has always been in the past, and that's not where we are now. We have the tools at our fingertips. Most of you are paying for tools that you're not using with something Xero. Most of you are outsourcing potentially some of these decisions and thinking somebody else is taking care of them, and they are not.
The responsibility lies with you and you can take ownership of this. You just need some help to get there. And that's why there's no judgment from us. I know these people don't know that. They don't know what there is to know, but there are better alternatives than saving money on accounting fees.
Tracey: I love that so much. Thank you so much for joining me in this episode. This is the takeaway that, save DIY for Bunnings, not for your legals and not for your accounting, and that you really can be empowered and improve the long-term sustainability and viability and profitability of your business when you get the right support.
And I always talk about how important it is to have the right [00:15:00] team around you. And part of that really is your business accountant. Love it so much, Andrea. If people want to dive in and find out a little more about you and check out your vibe, where can they find you?
Andrea: The best place I can direct them to our website at www.dreamaccounting.com.au and you'll see our fun-loving selves with brand new photos on that website.
Tracey: All right. Fantastic. We'll put the link to that in the show notes for anybody who's interested. Thank you so much for listening. I hope you have found this episode to be just as valuable as I have in chatting with Andrea because she's a wealth of knowledge and I cannot recommend her and her team highly enough. Thanks so much for listening.
Andrea: Thanks, Tracey.
LINKS:
Previous episode mentioned: Words in Business & Chat GPT - with Rachel Rennie
Website resource: Trademarks and Copyright: Is it Really Yours?
Connect with Tracey:
Get your copy of my Annual Legal Checklist here
Website: tmsolicitor.com.au
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tmsolicitor/
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