- I'm Sam Vander Wielen,
attorney turned entrepreneur
and for the best legal tips and trainings
head here each week.
Every Tuesday I post a new video
helping you learn how
to get legally legit.
So if you're tired of trying to figure out
all the different ways and all the steps
you need to take to legally
start your own online business,
then this video is going to teach you
the 5 steps you need to take
to legally start, protect,
and grow your online business.
I have helped thousands
of people just like you
who are coaches,
creatives, course creators,
and consultants with online businesses
legally protect and grow their brands.
And now it's your turn.
(upbeat music and Sam
Vander Wielen LLC logo)
Okay, now it's time to jump
in to my five-step strategy
to legally protect and
start your own business.
So step number one is all
about picking a name for your business.
A lot of people falsely think
that when you're picking
a name for your business,
the only thing in the
world to be concerned about
is whether or not you
can trademark your brand
or whether you are going to be able
to legally protect yourself moving forward
and make money off of your brand.
But I actually think that step number one
is researching your name for your business
to determine whether anybody else
already has something that's too similar
because what's most important
is that you don't want to infringe
on somebody else's
intellectual property rights.
So step number one is find
a name that's legally sound
that doesn't step on
the toes of anybody else
who already has a business or a trademark
or any other intellectual
property right of a similar name.
Step two is all about
registering your business.
So in America we typically
register our businesses
in the state where we live and work.
You have to choose the right
kind of business entity
that works for you, both where you live,
based on the kind of business
that you're starting,
what your goals are, what
your financial situation is,
what your tax liability
situation is as well.
So you want to go through and find
what kind of business
entity is right for you.
Go through the registration process
in the state where you live.
And take all of the follow-up
steps that you need to.
But what's most important here
is that you actually choose
the right business entity type,
so I'm gonna have something for you
at the end of this video so that you
can go through that process
and figure out what's best for you
'cause I want you to get the entity type
that actually personally protects you
and covers you online.
Step number three is all about
getting business insurance.
So business insurance for
U.S. coaches and creatives
who run online service-based businesses,
there are really two major
kinds of business insurance for us.
There's commercial general liability
and there's professional liability.
Commercial general liability
is what covers bodily injuries,
so when you slip and fall
or something like that,
as well as your premises.
When we're talking about
professional liability insurance,
that's what I like to
call oopsies insurance.
That's the kind of insurance that covers
any mistakes or alleged mistakes
resulting from your actual work.
So for example, if you are a health coach,
a nutritionist, a career
coach, anything like that
and you gave some advice to a client
and it didn't go so well for them.
They had a allergic
reaction or their career
didn't turn out so great or their business
didn't make very much money,
that's where that kind of
insurance would kick in.
If you were sued for something
that is covered under
your business policy,
then your business
insurance would provide you
with a defense attorney,
pay that attorney's fees,
and then pay any settlement or award
as long as it was for something
that was covered by your
policy, minus your deductible.
So it's very important when
you get business insurance
to make sure you get the right kind,
you work with a business insurance agent
who really understands you
and what you do online,
and you find out what your deductible
and your policy limits are.
Definitely very important.
Step number four is all about
getting contracts in place.
So I want you to make a list
if you're already working with people,
I want you to make a
list of every single way
that you're working with someone
and I want you to see how you
have a contract, if you do,
in place for every single
one of those relationships.
So I'm talking one-on-one coaching,
one-on-one creative work, group programs,
courses or self studies,
self-study materials,
any downloadable digital products,.
You want to see how can I made sure
that there's a contract involved.
And in each one of those scenarios,
a contract looks a little bit different
and I'll break those down
for sure in future videos.
If you have any questions
about what contracts you need
based on what you're doing,
just drop a comment below.
Step number five is all
about website policies.
So I want to make sure that your website
is legally legit, because your website
is really like the front door
to your business these days.
So you have all kinds of
people coming to your website,
people who work with you,
people who will never work with you,
and people who are thinking about it.
And all three of those people matter
if you have content on your website
or if you're collecting
personal information.
So if you're collecting email addresses,
you have an opt-in, a
freebie, something like that,
then it's really, really important
to make sure you have all three
of the major website
policies on your website.
Really quickly, and I'm
gonna break these down
in much more detail in a future video,
but all three of those
website policies are
the privacy policy,
the website disclaimer,
and terms and conditions.
All three of those are a must
for your legally legit website.
So now that we've gone
through my five-step strategy,
I want you to leave me a comment below
letting me know if you have any questions
about the steps you need to take
to legally start your own business.
But before you go, you
might be thinking like,
"Okay, now I've got
this five-step strategy,
"but I don't really
understand what I need to do
"or I don't understand what steps
"I specifically need to
take based on what I do."
Well I've gone ahead and created
a free on-demand workshop for you
called The First Five Steps
to Legally Protect and
Grow Your Online Business.
It's a free one-hour training.
You can watch it any
time that works for you.
I've dropped the link below
so just click the link
down in the description
and you can book your time
to watch my free workshop.
And if you liked this
video and found it helpful,
please give me a like below.
Make sure you hit subscribe before you go.
And comment helpful below so that I know
that this video helped you
learn how to legally protect
and grow your online business.
See you soon.
