What’s your business liability?

Maple donuts, maple butter, maple lattes, maple scones, maple cream, the list goes on….

I just got back from a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Vermont — and I think I’m still dreaming about all things maple 😂 (no but seriously – have you ever had maple cream? It’s a game changer.)

As much as I’d love to sit here and chat all things maple & apple recipes with you — we’ve got more important things to do, don’t we?

I’m so excited to A today’s Legal Q because it goes to the core of a huge myth + mistake I see lots of entrepreneurs make when it comes to legally protecting their businesses.

So let’s jump into our legal Q&A sesh! 👇

The Question // Devin asked:

I’m curious about liability beyond having an LLC. I’m hoping to launch an online fitness/movement business. Liability insurance is a big thing for in-person services, but what about virtual services and programs?

The Answer //

Oh Devin – this is GOOD! So let’s clear the air:

Liability (insurance and otherwise) is important whether you’re working with people in person, online, on a space ship, through the metaverse — anywhere. Liability is everywhere lol

So what’s liability? Liability is essentially what you’re responsible for as a business owner (and human). What can you be held responsible or blamed for? That’s essentially how I’d think of it.

So if you open an in-person business like a gym: what’s your potential liability? Injuries, employee issues, a trainer harassing a customer, slip and fall outside, etc.

What’s someone’s liability when offering coaching services, courses, group programs, etc? Someone saying they got injured/sick/lost money/experienced some harm from working with you, etc. You could get hit with copyright or trademark infringement, have someone steal your work, or run into your own contractor/employee issues, too.

So like you mentioned — getting business insurance (liability insurance is one type of biz insurance) is one way to protect yourself because it protects your business’ money. (I talked about business insurance in this podcast episode).

Another would be an LLC because an LLC would provide you limited personal liability protection — meaning it would keep YOU personally out of the liabilities of your business. (I talked about how to register your business and LLCs in this podcast episode.)

But I think the real “secret” to avoiding liability as much as possible is the “in between” stuff — the stuff that no contract or policy or LLC will cover.

It’s just as important to:

• ​learn what your scope of practice is and actually stick to it
• ​pre-qualify clients the right way so you avoid a lot of the most annoying legal headaches
• know how to handle “problem” clients, so they don’t become a legal headache down the line

Probably like what you teach your clients — legally protecting your business is pretty holistic, too. It’s not just about having a contract here or there — it’s really understanding how to talk about what you do, how to navigate sticky issues the right way, etc.

That’s actually why I created the Ultimate Bundle so many years ago. Yep – I wanted to give you the essentials of my best-selling legal templates, but I also wanted to give you that back-pocket resource to answer your “what do I do about: a client not paying, a problem client, a copycat, etc.” questions.

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 DM me “I want the Bundle” on IG and I’ll send you a link for $400 off, plus 3 free extra legal templates.

Hope this was helpful! Off to see if you’ve commented yet to let me know 🙂

PS: Want to rely less on the exhausting IG changes and focus your attention on the always-reliable email list? I’m teaching you how to build your email list (from scratch!) this week. Dive in by listening to my pod, On Your Terms, Epi 65 here.