Do Online Businesses Really Need Legal Stuff?

Woah – what a week. Yesterday I interviewed Amy Porterfield (yep, that Amy P!) for On Your Terms™ and then I secured my dream book agent right afterward.

It’s a wild time over here.

Look – if you’ve been around here, you know that I’m no overnight success story and things haven’t exactly come easy to me.

But I wanted to share these fun wins with you because A. I love sharing things with you — and I’m always open about the bad stuff, I want to share the good stuff too, and B. it shows how being legally protected on the front end can give you the spaciousness to grow.

I never imagined I’d be able to write a book — but I’m certainly glad that I protected all of my assets from the start now that I’m going to be a published author one day.

With that, let’s jump into our legal Q&A sesh! 👇

The Question // Cara asks,

My online coaching business isn’t registered – and apparently doesn’t need to be, but is there some kind of public liability or protection policy I can add?

The Answer //

I’m so glad you sent me this, Cara, because my first thought was,

“Why doesn’t your business need to be registered?”

When I replied to your question on IG and asked just that — you said because you were “just” an online coach, not an in-person service provider, and that you heard online businesses didn’t registration.

Online businesses need every bit of legal protection just like any other business because…. they’re businesses!

There’s no pass for being an online business vs. a brick-and-mortar.

The law also doesn’t care about whether you’re profitable, new, how many clients you have, or what else we have going on in our lives.

The law is the law — and it applies to you whether you’re a coach online or a baker in person.

That means you have to:

1️⃣ Register your business in your state where you live/work so you protect your personal assets (now + future)

2️⃣ Get business insurance, like professional liability insurance, if you’re coaching, selling courses, or offering services so you don’t have to pay for a lawsuit against your biz

3️⃣ Have legit lawyer-drafted contracts ready to send your clients or include at checkout so you get paid, protect your content, and avoid awkward boundary pushers.

If this is all news to you – you definitely want to watch my free legal workshop “5 Steps to Legally Protect & Grow Your Online Business” now.

In it, I’ll walk you through how to setup your business, get legit contracts in place, figure out what insurance you need, and more.

Best part for you? It costs $0 and will give you the gigantic sigh of relief you’ve been looking for when it comes to figuring out the legal side of your online business.

👉 register now.

Pssst! If you’re ready to legally legitimize your business, you need the Ultimate Bundle™️. It gives you all the legal contracts & policies you need, plus access to me in our Private Community for support, and loads of video trainings on every question you’ve ever worried about (like what to do if someone doesn’t pay you, whether you can work with minors, what to do if someone steals your content, how to form an LLC, how to get biz insurance & so much more).

​Learn more about the Ultimate Bundle here, and email me “I want the Bundle” and I’ll send you a link for $400 off, plus 3 free extra legal templates.

On Your Terms this week, I answered: Can You Put Business Expenses on Your Personal Card? Head over to the podcast to listen!