Students and alumni want to know what’s happening with AB5. Our last speaker in our weekly Legal Networking Forum 2020, Todd Olivas, CSR, and Alumnus of South Coast College, and Owner of Todd Olivas and Associates, said that he will be providing an update on AB5 when there is something to report other than where everything stands today.
The law that has passed at this time has not been rescinded and freelance court reporters and deposition reporters do not have an exception from AB5. The best advice that South Coast College can give to anyone is that you must follow the law. There will be dire consequences for freelance court or deposition reporters or deposition agencies who do not follow the law.
What does that mean? As long as the law does not exempt freelance court and deposition reporters from following the law, the reporter must be established as a business entity doing business with another business entity. South Coast College in collaboration with the Orange County Inland Empire Small Business Development Center in February 2020 held three free Saturday sessions open to the court reporting community to help our alumni and the freelance community cope with the onslaught of AB5.
The title of the workshop was “How to Successfully Start Your Own Business.”
The sessions were broken into three specific areas:
Class I: Basics of Entrepreneurship.
Class I covered the basics of entrepreneurship including the business of court reporting; being an independent contractor versus forming your own agency; entity formation; backend processes, procedure manuals, time audit and capacity.
Class II: Ins and outs of Marketing
Class II covered the ins of outs of marketing. The class focused on building relationships, how to be successful with firms, how to be competitive, and how to win your first client.
Class III: Path to Scale Your Own Business and Grow
Class III covered the path to scale your business and grow your own agency. It focused on how to grow your team, how to create your financial projections, understand the cost of running your agency, and the impact of seasonality on your cash flow.
This session also provided ongoing resources to help the freelance reporters who were interested in filing the paperwork to establish themselves as a business entity.
These sessions were FREE. Why didn’t more than 50 people attend? The workshops were broadcast throughout over 40 social media platforms and throughout all the South Coast College advertising venues.
It was because no one understood that AB5 was going to affect their existence as freelance reporters. Todd Olivas, CSR, Alumnus, owner of Todd Olivas and Associates, understood only too well.
He had already experienced the extent that the EDD would go through to prove that he misclassified his freelance court reporters.
As a result, when AB5 arrived on the scene, Todd has tried to educate reporters and advocate for freelance court reporters to be exempt from AB5. If a tow truck driver can be exempt from AB5, why can’t the officer of the court, the freelance court or deposition reporter?
Here is Todd’s inimitable way of presenting the issue:
Click the image below to watch video:
In summary, South Coast College will keep you informed of any updates pertaining to AB5. However, please heed the message to follow the law that is in place today, if you have not already made attempts to do so. The expense of filing a document to establish a business entity is far less than the ultimate cost of not doing so.
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