Level Up Your Legal in 2023

Happy New Year! Hope you had a fantastic Christmas if you celebrated. I’m still in Sedona, Arizona for the moment. Even working with a spiritual healer here! I said to a business friend the other day: “they have no idea how woo I actually am.” 😆 More on that in a future post! Tons of hiking here, making new friends, getting lost in the wilderness  🤦🏻‍♀️😅, etc.
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As we head into the new year, I want you to be as prepared as possible so you can hit the ground running. A few legal recommendations below. I suggest printing or bookmarking this post. If you have questions, please contact us at the Contact form in my footer!

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1. Review your contracts and update as necessary 

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• Has your scope of work for any services/coaching you provide changed?
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• Are you available to clients in the same capacity now as you were when the contract was drafted? Are clients respecting your boundaries? Flaking on calls? Tighten your availability as necessary, and put limits on how many times they can postpone, etc.
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• Can you get more detailed with your SOW? Drill down as to exactly what is provided, when it’s provided, the client’s obligations, what the client may think is included but isn’t, or is an extra fee? Have you addressed rounds of revision and turnaround time on the client’s end to request and approve revisions? What constitutes acceptable revisions? In the case of copywriters, you’re going to want to get really granular here so you’re not having to do a complete rewrite.
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• Have you had issues with scope creep? Think through the questions above, as well as what were the exact issues leading to scope creep, and tighten your SOW accordingly
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• Have your prices or payment systems changed? How about number, length and cost of installments?
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• Have you hired a subcontractor? If so, do your client contracts disclose you’re working with a subcontractor and a subcontractor may be working on their accounts?
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• Are you using client work in a portfolio? Have you disclosed this? (side note: if you have contracts from me, this is covered)
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• Are you using client testimonials on your website/sales page/social media? Have you gotten pre-approval in your client contracts, or given clients a testimonial release?
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• Do you need custom contracts? Have you had a lawyer you trust draft them? Check out my Work with Me 1:1 page  if you’re unsure whether you custom documents.
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2. New contracts as necessary

• Have you contractually protected all of your offers? Remember, any time you’re exchanging services for money, that exchange (of time, intellectual property, etc.) needs to be legally protected. So, even your smaller offers (like a paid intensive, virtual retreat, VIP Day) absolutely need contracts to protect you from ghosting, IP theft, boundary issues, and more.
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• If you’ve been using free contracts, contracts you got from a coach/course, or contracts you put together yourself, it goes without saying that you need lawyer-drafted contracts (get my fill-in-the-blank templates here) ASAP. It’s only a matter of time before those contracts will bite you and it’s not worth sacrificing your time, money and boundaries (and possibly subjecting yourself to a lawsuit). You can pay in installments by choosing “purchase with Partially” at checkout.

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3. Have you hired anyone to work in your business?

• If they provided a contract, did you have it reviewed by a lawyer?
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• If you’re providing an independent contractor agreement for new hires, was it drafted by a lawyer? You want to ensure anyone working for you is on the same page legally as to exactly what they’re providing you, and also, you want built-in protections for you. Free contracts are garbage, don’t risk your relationships with your clients and your business on these!
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• Have new hires signed an NDA? Important if they’ll have access to things like your client and prospect client lists, account info, etc. (side note: If you have my Independent Contractor Agreement, the NDA language is already built into the contract, so you don’t also have to have the service provider sign a separate NDA)
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• If you’re running an agency, it’s especially important that all of your subcontractors are operating under the same legal agreements, versus you signing each sub’s own contract 😬😬
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4. Is your business website protected? Legally compliant? Does it protect programs you sell through your website?

• Business websites need 3 legal policies. A Privacy Policy is a legal requirement and you can be fined without one. You also may run into issues with Google Analytics/Ads and Stripe without a Privacy Policy.

• • A Disclaimer Policy is also critical. If you have testimonials, affiliate links, etc., a Disclaimer is essential. This also protects you legally from someone coming to your website, trying something you recommend, getting hurt/injured (or just claiming they did 🙈) and trying to blame you.
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  • A Terms and Conditions policy outlines what behavior is allowed and not allowed on your website, and protects all of your intellectual property on your site.

• I linked our website policies bundle above that has all three policies. However, if you also need a client contract, whether it be as an OSP, SMM, VA, coach, etc., look for the contract bundle relevant to you. It will have the client contract you need plus the website policies.

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• If you’re selling group programs from your website, I always recommend that clients put their group program Terms of Use in their checkout as something buyers have to agree to before completing their purchase, and in the footer of their website or salespage, wherever they’re selling their program, so buyers are on notice of all terms…twice. Most of the time, group program participants are buying without first having a discovery call with you. And most of the time, there’s not the same level of familiarity/rapport as there is in a 1:1 relationship. I see a lot more attempted ghosting with group programs than 1:1. Putting your contract in the checkout binds them to its terms, and putting it in your footer is notice to anyone who comes to your webpage.
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5. Have you trademarked? Or at least confirmed you’re not infringing on anyone else’s trademarks?​
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• This is a big one, as many business owners plan to launch new programs/courses/offers at the beginning of the year. It’s absolutely critical that you ensure you’re not using a name that has been trademarked. I can help you with this or you can download my free trademark guide on my website. You’ll still need a lawyer to perform the necessary searches prior to actually trademarking, as trademark law involves things like common law trademark rights and clearing those is extensive searching across thousands of databases, but it’s the minimal amount you need to do on your own.
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• All businesses need to be thinking about trademarking their brands and signature offers sooner rather than later. Until you trademark, you’re renting, not owning, and you can’t prevent anyone else from using your name. The last thing you want is to build an incredible brand or program and have someone else use the name. The Trademark Office in the U.S. is so backed up it’s taking 14 months for marks to register. Let’s get this taken care of now. As a baseline, your brand and your programs need trademark protection.

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​Feel free to contact me with questions!

👉 Have we connected on social media? The best place for daily, bite-sized legal tips is my IG.

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Happy New Year!

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