Do You Need More Than One LLC?

Out of all the (well meaning but still) cringy comments I got about my Dad passing away, this one cracks me up the most:

“Sam, I won’t be able to make it to your Dad’s funeral. It’s just too last minute and I needed more notice.”

Oh, I’m sorry — next time I’ll ask my Dad to give you more of a head’s up 😂 His shocked and grieving daughter would’ve really liked that, too.

And then yesterday I take my brand-new electric car into the dealer after it malfunctioned & isn’t drivable — and I ask the receptionist for a loaner vehicle. “Oh,” she said, “you would’ve needed to give us at least 2-3 weeks’ advance notice for that.”

Next time I’ll ask my car to shoot me a text when it thinks it’s going to kick the bucket 😜

There are 2 things we can learn from this:

1. People don’t think before they speak.
2. Some emergencies can be prepped for — and others you gotta roll with.

That’s what legally protecting your business does for you.

It’s the preparation you can make for those unplanned, unexpected AND expected issues: people not paying you, lawsuits, content theft, bad client behavior etc.

Having an LLC — or properly registering your business — is 1 piece of the overall legal puzzle you can put in place to legally protect yourself personally.

Let’s jump into our legal Q&A sesh! 👇

The Question // Deborah asks:

Can I tuck a variety of different ventures— even if they’re not related— under the same LLC?

The Answer //

Yes, you can! But there’s a pretty big catch.

So let’s say you’re starting a business and you’ve decided you want to register it as an LLC, because you’ve learned that’s what’s best for you legally.

But as excited as you are about your online coaching business — you’re also thinking about starting an Etsy business and you like to pet sit/walk, too.

Should all 3 of those businesses be under one business umbrella?

They could, but that might not make it a great idea.

That’s because they’re all legally “exposed” to one another if they’re under the same LLC. So if your pet sitting business gets sued, your coaching and Etsy businesses are at risk, too.

The big benefit to separating them (besides keeping things really organized and clear) is legally insulating all of them from one another.

Now there’s a big difference between the 3-business example I gave you and what you might be doing. Maybe you’re starting a coaching business that has different offers:

• 1:1 private coaching
• course
• membership
• group program or mastermind
• digital products, etc.

All of those are just services/products that your (one) business offers! You wouldn’t create a different business for any of them.

And no, you don’t start different businesses for different marketing channels for your business either. So if you start a podcast or YouTube channel, that’s just a marketing channel for your business — it’s not a business unto itself.

If you’re starting an online business and want to make sure you follow the legal steps to do so, we’ve put together this handy Spotify playlist of the exact On Your Terms podcast episodes you should listen to!

Ok, off to check your question you just submitted!