Docular.net makes it super easy to create many of the legal documents you need as a small business owner in the UK.
Most, if not all, of the policies you will need are available for free. The only difference between Docular’s free and paid for policies, is the inclusion of a passage of text that reads…
2 Credit
2.1 This document was created using a template from Docular (https://docular.net).
You must retain the above credit. Use of this document without the credit is an infringement of copyright. However, you can purchase from us an equivalent document that does not include the credit.
The rest of the wording is the same throughout.
When you first access the Docular website you can experiment with a free Privacy Policy before creating an account. This will help you understand how the website works and what it can do for you and your business. You can find the test policy here – https://docular.net/pages/try
Using the search box at the top right of the screen, enter “Privacy Policy” and hit enter.
Selected the free Privacy Policy (no.5 on the list show above) and you will see this page…
Click the green button that says “Get” and on the next page click the big green button that says “Add to my documents” and it will open the document for editing.
You will see that sections of the document have been highlighted with yellow, red or blue. There are also square brackets and some text in italics. The square brackets indicate text that is optional or should be edited. Once you have finished editing there shouldn’t be any of these brackets left in your document. Text in italics indicates you need to insert information that is specific to your business.
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- Yellow highlighted text indicates you might need to remove part of the text.
- Red highlighted text indicates you need to add some of your own text
- Blue highlighted text means you can turn that section of text on or off depending on your situation and business set up.
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The more you use the document editor the more intuitive it becomes and it will get easier to do. There’s a steep, but small, learning curve to get started, but it does get easier.
For example, in section 1.1 if you only sell products and not services you could remove the text that says “service users and customer personnel”. Once you have made your edit, the text will be highlighted in green to mark that section as complete.
If you are unsure about what some of the terms mean you can search Google for the term and add the words “legal term” to the search and you should be able to find some relevant information that explains it. You can also contact Docular for help but remember if you are using the free version their help may be limited as they will want to prioritise their paying customers.
Once you have finished editing your document you can download it to your computer using the options at the top right.
Docular keep your edited copy in your account for you to make it easier if you ever need to make small changes or updates, but it’s best practice to keep a copy on a secure harddrive and in your backup folders just in case.
Once you are up and running you can start looking for other policies that you want to use. They all work in a similar way and can be edited to suit your business needs. Other policies you might need include, but are not limited to;
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- Delivery Policy
- Returns Policy
- Terms & Conditions of sale
- Copyright Notice
- Website Terms & Conditions
- Cookies Policy
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It’s easy to get bogged down in all of this and it may be an area you haven’t looked at yet, so it might be a bit disheartening when you first start considering what you need to do, but I would urge you to set aside some time and get this part of your business sorted out. Even micro businesses can get caught out for not having the appropriate legal policies in place.
Content Disclaimer
The information contained above is provided for information purposes only. The contents of this blog post are not intended to amount to advice and you should not rely on any of the contents of this blog post. Professional advice should be obtained before taking or refraining from taking any action as a result of the contents of this blog post. Nicky Merrick disclaims all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on any of the contents of this blog post.
