Hello, welcome to this training, three steps to legally protect your online business without hiring a lawyer. Since you're here, you already know the legal stuff matters, but knowing you need it and figuring out how to get it done can be two very different things. You want clear, actionable answers to your legal questions without relying on a questional mix of Google, Chat GPT, and a Facebook group thread from 2019. You want to feel confident that your business is protected without having to talk to a stuffy lawyer who doesn't understand online business and won't take you seriously. And you want to get paid what you're owed without spending weeks chasing invoices, sending awkward follow-ups, and wondering if you even have the right to say anything. Now, when it comes to these trainings, people often fall into one of two camps. And I know a lot of you guys have already kind of said where you're at, but let me know are you in the first one or the second one? Maybe you're holding yourself back from starting your business because you want to have all the legal stuff in place, but you don't even know where to start. Or maybe you've started your business already. Maybe you even have an LLC or you have a couple documents, but you have a feeling there are missing pieces in your legal strategy that are leaving you exposed to unnecessary risk. I see a lot of both twos, have an LLC, second camp. Yeah, so we are a few people just getting started, waiting to start. We have both. We have a good mix of both. Yeah, that makes sense. Either way, you are a go-getter working toward a long-term sustainable business that will support your dream lifestyle so you can live life on your own terms. But that's not always as simple as it sounds. So let me know if you are dreading any of these things or if you've dealt with any of these things, if you have any like experiences that you don't want to relive again. So maybe you've been you've had an experience where you spent hours onboarding a new client, piecing together a contract you weren't even sure protects you, or you've had to grant refunds you didn't want to give because you had nothing in writing saying you didn't have to. Maybe you're afraid of ending up overbooked because a client ghosts mid-project and then comes back three months later. Maybe you have had to respond to client messages at 8 p.m. because your agreement didn't explain your office hours. Your client is expecting a response. Maybe you've seen legal language on someone else's site and thought, wait, do I need that too? Or maybe you just are trying to ignore that voice in the back of your head that says, I actually haven't set this up right. I'm seeing some all of the above. All of the above. Do I have everything I need in the contract? Yes, exactly. Website, legal language, yeah, most of them. These are all signs that there are missing pieces in your legal strategy. But it is not your fault. At this point, there's no shortage of legal templates, TikTok lawyers, and AI-generated answers out there. But piecing together solutions every time a problem comes up isn't the same as building a solid legal foundation. You need a strategy designed for your business model. And that's where I come in. Hello, I'm Amy. I'm a mom, a Libra, an Enneogram one, a projector in human design, an avid romanticy reader, and a licensed attorney, turned online entrepreneur who makes the legal aspects of running an online business easy to understand and implement. Since 2019, I've helped over 7,500 entrepreneurs through my paid programs. And there's just a few of the things we've we've accomplished. Stop a copycat from stealing and reselling his program and protect three other business owners in the process. One of my clients, my students, has impressed her client with a professional and detailed contract and been able to say yes when the client asked for a non-disclosure agreement last minute. They've avoided nightmare clients because if the client wouldn't sign a contract, they probably weren't planning on respecting boundaries or paying. They've transitioned from in-person practice to online coaching with confidence, knowing her business was set up to protect her license in the process. And of course, protect their personal assets from the risk of doing business by forming an LLC and actually running it the right way. Now, let's bring it back to you. Maybe you're thinking that all sounds great, but do I really need to deal with this right now? Look, I get it. You don't have a ton of money to burn when starting your business, so you only want to pay for what feels absolutely necessary. I was there, I understand it. Let me ask you this though. Where do you want your business to be in five years? What do you hope to have because of your business? Tell me in the chat. Maybe you want to pay off debt. Maybe you want a 20-hour work week or 10-hour work week. Maybe you want to retire your spouse. For me, I would love to retire my husband so he could spend more time with our son. And because he hates his job, that is like the dream, right? Be your old boss, pay off debt, enjoy life. Yes, 20-hour work week. Love that. Retire my spouse, pay off my mortgage, travel. Yeah. A lot of reasons, right? In five years, probably retire. So let's play out that five-year vision. You're building your empire, right? This is what we're working with. So maybe you start with a few one-on-one clients. This is where a lot of us start, and you then you collect some amazing testimonials that help you gain confidence, perfect your process, raise your prices. So you decide to add in a group program at a lower price point for greater impact and more accessibility. I love that. It's a great way to add to your revenue and a great way to reach more people. But then the admin is getting to be a lot. So you hire a virtual assistant and then you decide to teach your signature method as a self-study course or put together a bundle of templatized resources. You're building up your revenue and increasing your passive income. This is the dream, right? You're getting there. You're able to pay off debt, buy a house, or even retire your spouse. What you see, a dream come true. This is what we're working toward. What I see is a house of cards. Let's look at that again, huh? So you start with a few one-on-one clients, and what I see is a missing one-on-one contract or one that might have some holes in it. If you're collecting testimonials, then there are marketing laws that say that have a say over how you collect them and the way that you share them. If you add a group program, that is another contract, a different contract that addresses group dynamics. Once you add a virtual assistant, that's another contract, an independent contractor agreement. And you have to pay attention to the laws around employee versus contractor to make sure you're not accidentally hiring an employee role. If you are teaching your signature method and you have a fun name for it or a unique name for it, that is an unprotected trademark. And then if you're selling a self-study course or templatized resources, there is a new kind of contract for that of terms of purchase for those resources. And if you're building up your revenue, then that is unprotected assets at risk. And as you increase your visibility, you are also increasing your risk of copycats. So maybe my point is this maybe you don't have a lot to lose right now, but ideally you will in the future, right? That's the whole goal. Taking care of the legal stuff now, make sure that everything you're building doesn't come crashing down right when it feels like you finally made it. And I'm here to tell you, it doesn't have to be expensive, confusing, or so complicated. You decide to throw in the towel on step one. You just need a step-by-step process to get all the legal stuff in place that prepares you for the real situations you face in business every day. So I have broken this training up into kind of three mini trainings just to keep it focused and easier to digest. So this is what's coming next. So training number one is how to know if your legal foundation actually has you covered. Training number two, how to figure out what contracts you actually need in business. Training number three, why forming your LLC is just step one, not the end goal. Plus, six mistakes most business owners make that can destroy their LLC protection. And as a heads up, at the end, you'll receive an exclusive opportunity to join my program, cover your assets, with a discount and special bonuses only available because you're here today. And one of those bonuses you have a chance to get in on is the tough emails templates. This is lawyer-drafted email templates for when your client doesn't get back to you, is laid on an invoice, and other tough situations. So let's get into it. Training number one, how to tell if your legal foundation has you covered. This is my three-step system to get all the legal stuff in place without worrying that you're missing something. Raise your hand, let me know in the chat if you've ever Googled a legal question or maybe you've asked Chat GPT, do I need an LLC? How do I stop copycats from stealing my content? How do I pay myself for my LLC? What is a trademark? And do I need one? Am I going to get sued? And then got so overwhelmed by the conflicting information that you decided to just deal with it later. I see lots of hands up, lots of yeses in the chat. Yes, yes, yep. Yes, hands-up emojis. Mm-hmm. Sharon's fighting with ChatGPT every day. Yes. Get legal hasn't stayed on your to-do list because you don't think it's important. You've tried to do your research, you've listened to every business podcast that mentions legal, maybe you even asked ChatGPT, and you're still left with questions and a feeling that there are gaps you don't even know about. You need a step-by-step system built for your business, for businesses like yours, so you can stop wondering what you're missing. And that is where my asset protection method comes in. So in this method, we first create the legal structure of your business so that your personal money and your profit is protected. Once that's done, focus on establishing boundaries and rules for client work and back them up with offer-specific contracts. And then layer in protections for everything that attracts your clients to you, your marketing, your website, your content, and your branding. This is a layered strategy that keeps your business protected even as it changes and grows. So let's break it down. We're going to go through each of those steps. Number one is create a stable foundation. The first priority is to make sure that anything you already own and any profits you've been taking out of the business are safe. By default, there is no legal distinction between you and your business. If you just go start running your business, you and your business are the same legal person. It sounds funny, but that's the way that the law defines it. If someone sues you, your personal money and your business money are at risk. The pool of money that a lawsuit targets can include all of your personal assets, including anything in your bank account, plus your home, car, savings, retirement accounts, investments, anything that you own. Even if you have insurance. And just to expand on that a little bit, yes, please have insurance. It's important, it's helpful. But one, insurance has limits. So if you're going beyond your limits, then your personal assets are at risk. And insurance only covers certain things. And sometimes it's hard to tell exactly what's covered until you're in that situation where you need it. So forming an LLC, what do you do? The solution. Forming an LLC separates you from your business. Your business becomes a separate legal person from you as an individual. Your LLC is its own person. And this creates a legal wall between your personal assets and your business assets. If your business gets sued after you have an LLC, all of your personal assets and any profit you've taken out of your business are safe. So I like to think of it as a seatbelt for your business. We put on our seatbelts as soon as we get in the car because riding in a car is inherently risky. Wearing a seatbelt doesn't prevent an accident, but it does reduce the damage an accident causes. Running a business is inherently risky. Just by deciding to do this, we are taking on some risk, right? So just like a seatbelt doesn't prevent an accident, your LLC doesn't prevent a lawsuit. It's not designed to, but it does reduce the damage when something goes wrong by limiting the pool of assets available in a lawsuit to just your business assets. Your personal assets are off limits. So that means an LLC is the best way to protect your personal money from the risks of doing business. And that means it's time to form an LLC if you have risks in your business or you own anything you want to protect, including future profits. So here's a list of personal assets you might have that you would want to protect and risks in your business that would make you want to need to protect your personal assets. So the personal assets might be savings and checking accounts, investments like stocks, bonds, and mutual funds, real estate like home, vacation home, rental properties, vehicles like cars, motorcycles, boats, retirement accounts, a 401k and IRA, children or dependents, not assets, but a reason that you need to continue to have assets. So they need things, future income potential, like income from a W-2 job, or future profits from your business, and anything you own jointly with another person depending on the state. So something that you own jointly with your spouse, it again depends on the state, but that can be a risk as well. And then risks in your business would be things like having a business partner, taking on debt in your business, hiring employees or contractors, operating in a sensitive or personal niche, like health financial relationships, parenting, selling higher risk services or products like fitness training, health supplements. If you have a large audience, just because more visibility is more risk, a large social media presence, or if you sell low-ticket, high volume offer, if you sell high-ticket, it's like 5k plus per package, or clients who pay a lot over time because each client is then riskier. Using other people's copyrighted material. So if you teach another person's framework, or if you have unlicensed images on your website, and working with clients without a contract. So if you really, if you have any of these on in either column, I would say it's not a bad idea. It's a good idea to form an LLC. So is forming an LLC your next step? I know a lot of you have them already. Um, I did see Veronica said, as long as you don't pierce the corporate veil, we are going to get to that. So hold tight on that. Um, and Andrew asked if there's going to be a replay. Yes, there will be a replay sent out after this. Okay, these are just a few of my students who have successfully formed an LLC um using the asset protection method. So uh I just want you to know that it is totally possible for you to do it on your own. And I know lots of people who have done it. So here's the proof. And this is Emma. She's another one of my students, and she was a physical therapist in person. She had an in-person physical therapy practice and decided to pursue online health coaching. And so she actually formed a separate LLC for her online coaching practice that was separate from her in-person physical therapy practice so that she could separate the risks of those two businesses from each other and have her personal assets protected as well. She used the course to do that. Okay, phase two is building profitable relationships. So this is the second step in the asset protection method. So this is where we establish rules and boundaries for working with you, backed up by your contracts to make your life easier and keep your clients happy. Our relationships with our clients are at the core of our business. They're the biggest revenue driver and the biggest area of risk. But relationships can get messy. Most lawsuits happen because a client feels they're owed something that wasn't provided. They didn't get what they think that they paid for. The best way to ensure a good client experience and a client who comes back over and over is by making sure the client knows exactly what to expect from you. A good client contract creates that clarity. So here's my kind of basic definition of a contract. A contract defines the rules and boundaries of a relationship in writing so everyone knows where they stand and what to expect. Clear contracts are the best way to protect your business when working with clients. And here's a few ways they help. First, they make your life easier with clear expectations and solid boundaries. The client knows exactly when they have to pay, they know what the late fee is if they don't pay, they know not to contact you on the weekends, they know your cancellation policy for your sessions. Everything is clear. Number two, they reduce the risk of a lawsuit by fostering good relationships with clients because, again, if they know what to expect, they're more likely to stay happy and not sue you. And third, they reduce the damage a lawsuit can cause by limiting liability. So you can build right in right into your contract exactly what you're responsible for and what you're not, and then also put a cap on the amount that you would ever have to pay to a client if they did sue you. Basically, all you would have to do is give them what they paid you back. So it just puts a limit on how bad that can be. And Brittany, you say if if they read it, yeah. So they'll know your boundaries if you read it, but you can enforce your boundaries even if they don't read it. So let's make this a little bit more concrete. Let's say that a client goes to without a contract, there's not a whole lot you can do. So, like they signed up, they signed your contract, or you didn't have a contract. So they fill out your intake form. They said, yes, let's go. Maybe they uh did enough for you to get started. You start working on the project, maybe you send something off, and then crickets, right? Without a contract, there's not a whole lot you can do. You're left emailing them 20 times with no response, and that's it. Plus, you don't really want to take on other clients because you're afraid they'll pop back up and expect you to work on their project again. It's lost money, lost time, lost opportunity, and just a giant headache. But with a contract that accounts for ghosts, the client knows the exact time period they have to respond before there are consequences. You collect a deposit up front. So you're never out the full amount. You don't have that situation where you got started and then had an invoice that was ignored. You add on late fees to your invoices to account for the cost of not having the money and your time spent chasing the client. You can send the client to collections because you have the proof that they agreed to pay you. You can terminate the contract, just kick them out and say, I'm not working with you anymore, and fill your calendar with clients who actually pay. And you can charge a restart fee if the client does come back in a few months and wants to continue. Your contract helps you create the rules for working with you and dictates what happens when something goes wrong. So there are two sides here, right? So, number one, you make the rules for working with you, you add them to your contract as your deliverables and your policies, and those clear expectations make your life easier and make a lawsuit less likely. And then if anything does go wrong, you have the contract as evidence of what was agreed to and a roadmap for how any dispute can proceed in all the legalese, which makes it less expensive to resolve. And that is why swiping a contract or writing your own often just doesn't cut it because it's a lot of times it's missing that second piece. So here's what I want you to know: you can build client relationships that boost your bottom line without pushing your boundaries. This is Cecilia. She's a graphic designer and digital marketer. And when she started her business, like a lot of people, she wasn't sure how it would go. So she glazed over a lot of the legal parts, like setting up contracts and filing for trademarks. And as her business grew, she realized she needed to go back and update the systems and the legal parts and pieces. And she said I helped her break it down into manageable chunks. And my contract templates are easy to use, clear, and have been really helpful in protecting her work as a freelancer. And they've saved her so much time and energy chasing down invoices or having to renegotiate terms when scope of work increased. She does not deal with that nonsense anymore. And this is Jenny. She's a graphic designer, and she had a situation where a friend reached out to help her, help him design his album. And so she let him know, like, I need a contract, and they agreed to the scope and the project and everything. And then when she sent over the contract, he said it was too extensive and too legal looking, and he made it seem inconvenient to have to consult a lawyer. Um, and so she gave it some thought and she decided not to work with him because his reaction showed that he didn't really take her seriously. He didn't think of her as a serious business owner who he was entering into a business relationship with and that he didn't really trust her. So she decided to not do the project at all. And she's used the same contract with clients, and it's been totally fine. So she's really glad that she was able to find out ahead of time that he wasn't gonna take her seriously. And the third step of the asset protection method is protecting your growth. So once your personal assets and your client relationships are secure, we focus on protecting what you sell and how you sell it. As coaches, service providers, consultants, and course creators, we create every day, right? Our businesses rely on packaging our knowledge, creativity, imagination, and effort. We are in the knowledge economy. What we know is what we sell. So the good news everything you create is intellectual property. Intellectual property, as a basic definition, is a work or invention that is the result of creativity. It's any product of human intellect that the law protects from unauthorized use by others. So basically, what that means is anything you create with your brain is intellectual property. And there are two main types of intellectual property that are relevant for our purposes, and that is copyrights and trademarks. Copyrights protect your content, trademarks protect your branding. The easy way to remember it. So just by creating something, you own the copyright. That is, you don't have to register it, you just create it, you uh put it into a tangible format, something recordable, something perceivable that other people can see, and you own the copyright. But when you start handing it out in bits and pieces, ownership and permissions and how other people can use your content gets a little bit less clear. Your business, if you think about it, your business owns a lot of intellectual property. Your intellectual property rights, particularly copyrights, are relevant in all areas of your business, and particularly the client-facing ones. And so that is your client work, all the work that you create for your clients, the paid content that you include inside of programs or downloads, your free content. So things like your website content and your social media content, podcast, uh, download, like free lead magnet downloads, and even guest appearances if you go present in someone else's group, if you talk on somebody else's podcast, pitch present at a summit, that kind of thing. All of that is copyright. And it's up to you to decide who owns the content, who can use the content, are there limits on that use? Can they use it for personal use, internal business use, commercial use? Can they sell it? Can they share the content with others? Is there a time limit on their access and use? There are default rules that provide answers to these questions, but they might not be the same as your gut instinct or your preference. So once you understand the default rules for ownership of your content and branding and the options available to you, you can make informed decisions about how you allow your content to be used and make sure you aren't violating anyone else's rights. So this is Chris, he's a digital marketer, and he had an experience where he found out that someone else was selling his, stealing and selling his digital product in a Facebook group. And he sent them my C synthesis letter. He used my template, customized it, and sent them the C synthesis letter. And that person stopped. And not only did they stop selling his products, they deleted the entire Facebook group where they were selling them. So just by taking one action, just by knowing what to do and doing one thing, he was able to protect his own product and at least three other businesses' intellectual property. So that covers what you sell, but the way that you sell it is just as important. We need marketing to succeed in business. It's a fact of life. Referrals, social media, websites, paid ads, JV webinars, collaborations, all of that. I would consider marketing. And your marketing helps your business grow. And of course, because you're getting more visibility, more eyes, more leads, more customers, it also opens you up to new risks. Because following marketing laws is not optional. There are laws about using testimonials from clients, how you collect them, how you present them, what you say along with them, how you price your offers, how you land on those prices, what you say about discounts, the way you communicate your bonus stack. So when there's extra bonuses include concluded with something, the way that you talk about that, uh affiliate marketing disclosures, if you share affiliate links or if you have affiliates, the policies that you need on your website, privacy laws, using other people's content and trademarks, and the claims that you make about your results from your programs. All these things have laws about them, and there's marketing laws about the entire way that you market and sell things, uh, and you need to know about them. So this is Cecilia again, and she said that my programs have been incredibly helpful for her to make sure she can still DIY a lot of her own marketing, but in a legal and protected way. So that is the asset protection method. It gives you the system to follow so that you don't waste months trying to figure it all out on your own and end up unsure if your personal money is safe, stuck yoking with clients who push your boundaries, constantly fighting off copycats, and accidentally breaking the law. So I know that was just an overview of kind of all of the things. I just threw so much at you. Um, so all of that has more in it, and we're gonna go a little bit more into some of it as well. Um I'm just looking at the chat, make sure I I'm not missing any questions. We are gonna have a QA section at the end where we'll be able to go a lot more into questions. Um and I will be like going back into questions a lot more. So I see people asking, yes, I am an attorney. I am licensed. Um Tish. Michelle, we do, I am gonna be sending out the recording after this. Probably it'll go around probably around six, six o'clock. Um okay, so a lot of this stuff I think is uh we'll get to in the QA. I just want to make sure there wasn't anything like on that training that I needed to talk about right this second. So keep we'll come we'll come back to the QA part. Um and we're just gonna keep moving because I want to make sure I get through everything. Okay, training number two, how to decide which contracts you actually need in your business, when to get it in writing, and when it's okay to skip the contract. So hopefully from that you can see that client contracts are important and are planning to use them with your one-on-one clients, but contracts help with much more than just your one-on-one client relationships. If you stop there, you're leaving yourself open to huge legal risks. So here's why. This is that definition we saw before. A contract defines the rules and boundaries of a relationship in writing so everyone knows where they stand and what to expect. But you have more relationships in your business than just your one-on-one clients, right? You have a website visitor, you have someone who opts into your freebie, uh, someone who purchases your digital product, clients in your group program, guest presenters on your podcast or inside of your programs, uh podcast guests on your podcast, summit participants, affiliates, or maybe you're an affiliate for someone else. So these are all beyond your one-on-one client relationships, but they're they are other relations, important business relationships that you have. So maybe I'm hearing you say, But Amy, my clients are the only ones who pay me. So that's all that matters, right? If it only matters if there's money changing hands. Let me ask you this: is money the only thing that has value in your business? The way I see it, there is value create and value you receive. So value create might be uh coaching or service packages, your course content, your free downloadable content, your uh podcast, YouTube, social content, other types of free content you put out there. Your brand even has value, right? Your name, your logo, your slogan. And then there's value that you receive from other business owners or from your students or your clients. Might be guest presentations, guest participation and interviews for your podcast or YouTube, marketing efforts by your affiliates, testimonials and feedback from your clients, super valuable for bringing in new clients, right? And even publicity exposure or an opportunity to promote does have value. As much as we joke about how it's not enough, it does have value, right? So here's my rule: anytime you're exchanging something of value with someone else and you want control over that exchange, you need a contract. So let's do an example. Let's say you have a guest present to your students in your group program. You don't pay for the presentation, but the you let the guest pitch a product and drop a free B-link. So the value that you're receiving is the value of that presentation for your students. And then the value that you're giving is the opportunity for that guest to promote and get some publicity to your students. If you don't have a contract, can you post the recording inside your course dashboard for future clients to watch, or is this a live-only situation? Can you use the guest trademarks and headshot to advertise that you have this guest training inside your program? Can use the recording inside another program. So maybe not this one, but you uh produce a smaller mini product later and you think it would be a great fit. What if the guest asks you to take down the recording later on? Can you say no? Let's do another example. So, what about your free lead magnet? You give away a piece of content in exchange for an email address. So there's no money changing hands, but you are giving away a great piece of content, a PDF or a video or something like that, and you're receiving an email address and an opportunity to promote to that person in the future. If you don't have a contract, can the freebie seeker tweak and then resell your free download to other people? Can they use it in their business or is it just personal use? Can they use it with their own clients? If you don't have a contract, you're stuck with the default rules that you probably don't know and might be in your favor. You probably had answers into your head in your head of what you would prefer those questions answers to those questions to be, but they might not be the same as the default rules. So, in my opinion, the most two most important types of value that you can exchange in business is money, of course, and content, because again, we're selling knowledge here. So if you're giving or receiving money or content, you need a contract. And you care about the outcome. If you don't care what the answer to those questions are, fine. But if you care about the outcome and you want to control that content or that money, when you receive it, who does what with it, then you need a contract. And quick reminder: a contract doesn't have to be a long formal document that both people signed with a pen. So, for example, with a testimonial or even with a podcast guest, it can be one little paragraph at the bottom of a form that says, You have my permission to use my name and my business name and my trademark in association with this testimonial or with the podcast, or with a podcast guest, it might be, you know, that the producer has full ownership of the content and that the guest doesn't retain ownership of that. And you have permission to use their name and their face and anything they submit along with your presentation, along with your podcast and promoting it and all of that. So it doesn't have to be like some formal intimidating thing. It can be, it just needs to be an understanding in writing between two people uh with proof that it's been acknowledged. So, Renee, a presentation, virtual or in person, if you care about who owns the presentation at the end, then yes, that's what a contract is for. So if you come and present into cover your assets, and I want to make sure that I get to keep that recording in there for life and you can't take it back at some point, I would need that in writing, right? And if you want to say, I definitely can't do that, you would need that in writing. Okay. I don't see any more questions about that. So we're gonna keep going. Okay. Becky or Lisa, how do you prove acknowledgement? It's kind of similar questions. How do you prove acknowledgement um an agreement if you don't have something signed by both parties? So what I mean is it doesn't have to be like a formal signature, it can be a checkbox on a form or a checkbox on a checkout page, for example. So if your podcast guest is submitting a form and um they there's a little paragraph that says, I agree to all this stuff by submitting this form, and then there's a box that says yes, I agree, and they check the box that says yes, I agree, that's as good as a signature. Or they might type in, I agree, um, and that's as good as a signature. So, Becky, an email is considered in writing, but the problem with email is that you have back and forth, and so you need to have kind of what is the final agreement and a way to point to this is the end of the discussion. Um, that can be the issue with email. Okay. Awesome. Moving on. Training number three why forming an LLC is just the first step, plus six mistakes that most business owners make that can destroy their LC protection. So we already talked about how an LLC helps protect your personal money, but creating the LLC is just the first step. The number one mistake business owners make is not using their LLC. So your LLC only helps you if you know how to use it. If you just file the paperwork for your LLC and then you keep doing everything else the same, you aren't actually using your LLC. So here's an example: entering contracts personally instead of on behalf of the LLC. How this looks when you sign a contract personally, you put your name there and you sign your name, and that's it. If I sign it as my LLC, the LLC name is there, the signature line is the same, but then you're referencing that this is on behalf of the LLC. So the name and then your capacity in which you're signing on behalf of the LLC. In this case, it says member, and that is just another way, the legal way of saying owner of an LLC. And another way to indicate that is by saying duly authorized. So I have permission to sign on behalf of this organization. So you need to say the organization that is signing the contract, entering the contract, which is the name of the LLC, your name, and then your capacity in which you're entering it, and your authority to sign on behalf of the LLC, which might be member, might be duly authorized. And then also the LLC should be listed as the person, as the service provider, as the coach, entering the contract at the top of the document as well. So the it feels a little weird, but the LLC is the coach, is the service provider. It's not you anymore. So let's do another example. Uh, this little timeline. So let's say in month one, you launch your business. In month two, you land your first client. Yay, proof of concept. You decide it's gonna work out. So in month three, you form your LLC. In month 18, client number one sues you. Does your LLC protect you in this scenario? No, it doesn't. Your legal structure at the time you sign the contract with the client, not at the time of the lawsuit, is what determines which assets they have access to. So because you sign that client as yourself personally before your LLC existed, the lawsuit can access your personal assets. So everything you own personally plus all the money that you took out of your business from the time you landed that first client is at risk in that lawsuit. Now, if this is your situation, don't panic, you can fix it. So unless, unless you had that client sign a new contract, switching them over to working with your LLC. So in month three, you form your LLC, and then client number one signs a new contract with the LLC. Okay, let's do another example. So in month one, you form your LLC, you did it first this time. In month two, you signed client number one, and in year three, client number one sues you. Does your LLC protect you? It depends. Did you maintain your LLC? So three years have gone by. What have you been doing with your LLC since then? So here are the six mistakes that business owners make that can destroy their LC protection. Number one, we already talked about not switching clients over to work with their LLC. Number two, again, we already talked about entering contracts personally instead of as the LLC. So in that example, how did you enter that contract? Number three is mixing personal and business money. And this is where piercing the corporate bail comes in. So if you mix your business money and your personal money, a court can look at that and say, these are not two, um, these are not two different, you're not treating it as a separate business. You're not respecting the separation between your LLC and yourself as a person, and they can decide that your LLC just doesn't protect you, it doesn't exist anymore. Uh, and number four is the proof that you're not mixing your personal and business money. So you need to keep up with your bookkeeping to show that you are doing the right thing and managing your money in the right way and keeping your business money separate from your personal money. Number five is forming your LLC in another state, a separate state where you don't live, and not registering as a foreign LLC in the state where you do live. So there's all this advice out there online that says form in Wyoming or form in Delaware, but you also have to form the LLC in the state where you actually operate out of. So if you take that advice and don't know that you need to register as a foreign LLC in your own state, if you do it that way, then you can face fines and uh serious consequences. And then number six is not filing your annual reports. Um, most states require an annual filing and an annual fee or franchise tax. And if you don't file that, then the state can just administratively dissolve your LLC and it can stop uh stop existing. Lydia, how much of co-mingling personal or business funds pierces the corporate bail? I know a lot of new business owners are Schedule C, as they might may not have fully separated everything yet. Yeah, so being Schedule C doesn't mean everything has to be mixed together, like you should still be separating it, but it this is the piece that trips people up the most. And this is why I say bookkeepers are so important, because you have to keep your personal money and your business money separate and document any time that it accidentally overlaps, or if you pay a business expense on your personal card, you have to reimburse it, file an expense report like you would with your like old boss uh if you worked, if you worked, if you were working for a different company. Um, so I can't give you an exact line of like five transactions is too many. It's generally more of like, are you treating this overall? Are you treating this like it's its own thing, or are you treating it like your personal ATM? Um and Angela, this is a great question. Uh, what if you're not making any money yet and using your personal money to get your business going? So if you have an LLC, you have to use the LLC money to start up your business to use the LLC money to pay business expenses. But what you can do is fund the LLC from the beginning. So you can kind of do a buy-in, your initial investment into the business where you deposit like a lump sum, a large amount, or at least an amount that will get you going so that you're not constantly pulling small amounts over from your personal account. You funded it once to begin with, and uh that's your initial capital contribution. And then you can also do additional capital contributions. In the future, if you need more. Yeah, Jeffrey, owner contribution. If you need more. And Sherry, you also, yes, can loan money to your LLC. Just make sure that you're formalizing it. Document it as a loan. Make sure those payments are coming back to you. Have interest on it so that it's clear that it's one person loaning a different person money. It's not money just flowing back and forth. Um, yeah. So this has opened a whole can of worms, I see. So I want to not lose momentum here. And I want to get back to all of this um in the QA section. So these are all great questions and keep them. And we will, I'm gonna stick around for like half an hour in the QA so we can get a lot more into this. Um yeah, I'm just making sure this is like sparked so many questions. So save them. Um, I'm not sure if I turned it on, but if you can see the QA feature as part of the webinar, put your questions in there and then it's easier for me to come back to them at the end. Okay, we're gonna keep going. So my point here is that your LLC needs maintenance and attention, just like any other area of your business. And a client also, a client has up to three to six years from when something went wrong to file a lawsuit, and that's all time that you spent building your business and your assets. So the steps that you take now influence the security of your business for years to come. This is JM. She is a sleeper programmer, and when she drank of your assets, she already had an LLC. But she still said it was such a relief because there were so many topics that she just had a mental brush with and thought, well, look this up later, and then never did. And so she bought it for the contract templates, but just knowing she had it as a resource. Anytime she got worried about basic business regalities, it was such a relief. She has legal shield, she has insurance, she has an LLC. CY was an absolute mess on her self-protection team. And this is another one of my students who posted in our community. She said that she's a brand new business owner and having her own business wasn't even on her radar until she hit a pivotal moment in her life a few years ago. And that being said, she's very green, and most of her knowledge and progress so far has been piecemealed together. And she was very anxious about missing a step or not knowing what I don't know. And the course has been so great to fill in the gaps, pull it all together systematically and thoroughly so she can see it as a whole and understand it. It's giving her such peace of mind that she's doing it right and protecting herself and her business. And this is another one of my students posted in the community. We have an LLC checklist as part of the program that is kind of like an LLC audit for people who already have their LLC set up. So you can go through and make sure that all the steps were done correctly from the beginning. And so she especially liked that there was a step about finances in terms of recording your capital investment into the business as well as how to pay yourself as a CEO and founder. And we have lessons on both of those things. And they're both steps that she had missed in past prior businesses, and it cost her time, money, frustrations. And so for this business, she's not bringing in money yet and she hasn't completed the how to pay yourself, but she did choose her accountant and tax prep. And the checklist in the course just gave her a lot more confidence running her business than she's had in the past. She's real, she's confident now that when she is bringing in tons of money, honey, she'll be correct, correctly positioned both legally and financially to manage the business successfully. So if you take one thing away from this class, I want you to know that you can protect your business, your passion, and your freedom from the risks of doing business. Big corporations have a whole legal department plus lawyers on retainer. As a small business owner, you are the legal department for your business. If you don't step up to protect your business and your freedom, who will? Are you building a house of cards or are you building an empire? It's time for you to stop hoping for the best and start protecting your assets. It's time for you to follow a step-by-step system that takes the guesswork out of the legal aspects of business. Cover your assets gives you that system. No more getting lost in a Google rabbit hole, no more crossing your fingers and hoping for the best. Cover your assets gives you training, templates, and coaching to get all the legal stuff in place. So there are three core components you got immediate access to inside this program. The first one is the complete curriculum, the asset protection method. And this is the step-by-step curriculum with short, actionable video lessons, checklists, guides, and templates to get all the legal stuff in place the easy way. This is Tara. She's one of my rock star students. And she said that in less than 24 hours from joining, she got and filed her LLC certificate from the state, received her EIM, updated her website policies, and added additional protection, a disclaimer, and privacy policy, and she got started on filing a trademark. It was everything she needed. And that is not typical. Most people don't take action that fast. But I just wanted you to show you how like step by step and easy to follow the program is, that it is totally possible to do that. And that is so that's the asset protection method. It's the method that we went over. But as a reminder, phase one, the first priority is to make sure that anything you already own and any profits you take out of the business are safe. So that means in phase one, we focus on creating your LLC and learning to run it the right way. And that gives you a solid foundation to grow from and reduces the damage if you do get sued. And in phase two, our client relationships are the biggest area of risk and impact our day-to-day the most. So next, we focus on establishing boundaries and rules for client work and back them up with offer-specific contracts that reduce the likelihood and cost of a lawsuit. And finally, in phase three, we add in protections for everything that attracts your clients to you: your marketing, your website, your content, and your branding. Yes, there are marketing laws. I briefly brushed over them. And yes, they do apply to your business. And your content and your branding attracts clients. So it's important to make sure you can keep using them for a long time. This is a layered strategy that keeps your business protected even as it changes and grows. This is Sybil. She's a health coach, and she said that cover your assets made her feel confident that she could handle the legal aspects of her business on her own. And this is Carrie. She's a coach and speaker. Carrie is one of my OGs. She just spontaneously sent me this testimonial a couple weeks ago. And so nice. But she joined Cover Your Assets over five years ago. And she said that it's been truly instrumental in building her business. And she can't emphasize this enough. The amount of win she's had from the information and wisdom that I've shared in this in the program and the community are invaluable. She's made significant changes to her LLC formation, processed to successful trademarks, updated her website policies, created comprehensive contracts in a breeze. And now she's working on recently updated content on content and copy, uh, brand copying. Um, we did a whole like training on using AI in your content and updates to the copycat workshop. And so that's what she's diving into now, which allows her to stay ahead of potentialities and knowing she's protected in all of these ways takes a huge weight off her shoulders as a solopreneur. It allows her to drop into her creativity more because she knows how well covered her business is. And all of the information and wisdom and cover your assets has significantly contributed to the foundation of her business success. Simply put, joining this container has been a game changer for Carrie and her business. And then the second piece that you get access to is the community support. So you have live support and coaching. You got six months of access to live monthly group coaching calls that combine a legal workshop and QA, plus daily access to our student community, so you never get stuck and always have answers. And these are just a couple posts from our community that just showing appreciation for like the quick answers. Um, Nicole said it was so helpful to know what her next steps are. It's reassuring. It's amazing to have a safe place to ask for this and get a better understanding. And Molly was really happy with an awesome and thorough answer and that it went really in depth. It's one of her favorite parts of the group, is hearing my thought process around my answer. And this is Emma again, physical therapist and health coach. And she said that I am a mine of information and answer every single question in amazing depth and have amazing knowledge. She joined because she needed to upgrade what she was doing from a legal perspective for her online programs after transitioning from in-person practice. And she's been blown away with the amazing content and support. Okay, the third piece that you get access to is the contract template vault. This is a huge resource and does 30 plus plug and play legal templates with guides that walk you through how to use each contract template and be able to explain it to your client. So just a few of the contracts that are in there. Uh, there's a one-on-one coaching contract, group coaching, contract, group coaching terms, if you'd rather post it and not have people sign it. There's a freelancer contract, consultant contract, VIP day, LLC operating agreement, website policies, terms of purchase, independent contractor agreement, affiliate agreement, testimonial release, podcast guest release, guest speaker agreement, intellectual property license, and a lot more. So it's very comprehensive. And each of these I've sold on my website on their own. They're worth$397 each. So all told that is a huge value, over$8,000. And there's all kinds of contracts in there. LLC website, copyright enforcement, one-on-one client contracts, course and membership site terms, group contracts, or contracts for working with other business owners. Uh it's it's a lot. There's a lot in there. Um, and Kathleen is one of the members, and she said, Wow, I can't believe how much information there is. Uh, she's been waiting and looking for someone like me, avoiding lawyer fees, knowing she could do so much on her own if she just had a few templates. And now I have so many templates for things I never thought about. And uh, it is much cheaper to use a template, even if you go and get it reviewed, uh, than paying for someone to custom draft it at, you know,$200,$400 an hour. That is the complete cover assets experience, the step-by-step curriculum, the six coaching calls, the members-only community, the contract template library, legal checklists and guides, monthly legal workshops, the library of cast coaching calls, and lifetime access to the content. The total value there is over$15,000. Enrollment in cover assets is normally$22.50, but because you're here, because you are taking action and empowering yourselves with the legal knowledge, you are getting$200 off. So that is only$2050. And the discount this discount expires May 20. So there are two payment options. The pay and full option is$2,050 one time, or there's a split pay option, and that$200 discount comes off the first payment. So the first payment is only$175, and then it's five monthly payments of$375 from there. So I'm gonna put the link in the chat so that you have it. The return on this is clear. If you say no to a$500 refund request four times, that's the price of the program. If you retain one recurring client at$1,000 a month, you've more than made your money back. If you prevent a rebrand for trademark violation, you're saving a couple thousand dollars. If you protect your personal money from a lawsuit, you're saving$50,000 plus. Lawsuits can range wildly, but putting a conservative number on it there. And if you sleep soundly, knowing your business is legit and protected, that is priceless. If you don't have an LLC yet, I've got you covered. You're in exactly the right place. Phase one includes step-by-step instructions and behind-the-scenes walkthroughs of the whole process to form your LLC and guidance on how to actually use it once you've all the paperwork, things like paying yourself and maintaining that LLC protection, not piercing the corporate veil. And CYA includes resources for every state. So it doesn't matter what state you want to form in, there is guidance on how to do that. And again, these are just a few of my students who have successfully formed their LLC just using my resources, and they they did it and they're so excited about it. So there's Maria formed her LLC. She said she loves the course and she would not have been able to do it without cover your assets. Uh Tasman got her LLC formed, and it was it only took three days to get confirmation from the state. Karen got her LLC, her EIN, and her BOI filing, and Sue Ann did it. She also got a DBA as well. Stephanie did it, and got her DBA as well, and her EIN, and Tara again did it in 24 hours of joining. And if you've been at this a while, you're not too far along. So if you already have your LLC, there's still so much to get out of this program. Most established business owners who join Cove Your Assets find gaps they didn't know they had, contracts that don't match how they actually run their business now, an LLC that might not protect them because of common maintenance mistakes, marketing practices that violate laws most online business owners just haven't thought about. So this isn't just for beginners. It's for anyone who wants to know that their business is actually protected even as it changes and grows. So just as a reminder, Carrie has been in the program for five years and she started, formed her LLC, and she came back as things changed. She moved and helped use the program to help her move her LLC across state lines. I think she changed the name of it one time. She processed trademarks. She recently just launched a new digital product. So she came back for that. So it's been something that she's used over the course of her business and not just at the beginning. And this is JN. She came into the program with an LLC and still felt like it was so useful and a must on her self-protection team. Drop the link again. And if you're worried about time, you don't have to do it all at once. Most students set up their LLC and get systems in place to run it the right way. The core of protecting your personal assets within 30 days. Again, the fastest was Tara, 24 hours. But most people can do it within a really reasonable time. And the rest, the contracts, marketing laws, IP protection is waiting whenever you're ready. That's what lifetime access is for. So as a reminder, you get lifetime access to the curriculum, the contract balt, and the bonuses. And you get six monthly QA calls with me, six months of access to the member community. And you also have the option to extend the community and call access month to month at an alumni rate. If you ever, if you take a break for a while and then want to come back, or if you just want to keep going the whole time, uh, you have that option. We thought I was done. Did I mention the bonuses? So this is a limited time bonus. It expires on May 20th. I know we had a couple of questions about trademarks and um how to register them and that kind of thing. This is the solution. The trademark roadmap. So this is the complete step-by-step program to register your trademark with the US PTO, the US Patent and Trademark Office, without hiring a lawyer. It is a full-length course that walks you through the whole process, like over the shoulder. You watch me do it. I sell this for$397 usually, and it is a bonus included when you join Cover Your Assets just this week until next Wednesday, May 20th. Um, and then this is a I did a live round of this last year. And so this is some feedback that I got then. This is someone who had filed with trademark lawyers before, but she felt like she didn't know enough to make the best choices without a lawyer educating her a lot. So when she used a quick trademark service, they made several mistakes. And then she realized she couldn't delegate her understanding of trademarks anymore. And now she understands them so much more, they're less intimidating, more straightforward, and she's not scared to make the big decisions for her business anymore. And that's kind of like my whole philosophy, right? Is that you shouldn't be outsourcing all these important decisions about your business, but at the same time, you don't necessarily know enough to make good decisions. So I want to empower you to understand when someone's doing a good job for you and when they're not, and to make decisions that you feel are backed with knowledge and that are supporting what you actually want. And the next bonus is the copycat workshop. This is training on how to protect your work from copycats and the steps to take if someone copies your content. And I just recently did an update on this. Uh, we also added a lesson about AI content ownership. So if you use AI to create content, this is so important. Um, and you'll know what that means for you. Uh, and then legal templates to enforce your ownership rights in your content, including cease and desist letters, which Chris used to get someone who was stealing his digital products and be selling them to stop just by sending a copyright cease and desist letter using my template. The next bonus is website protection toolkit, and that is legal policies, templates, website policies, templates, terms and conditions, disclaimer, privacy policy, and training on how to protect your website and follow marketing laws and how to make your website more accessible to everyone. And these are just a few people who have used the website protection toolkit. Um there, Bridget said she recommends it to all of her Facebook ads, clients. Another person said when Amy said you can have your website protected in just one afternoon. I found it hard to believe, but then she did it and she wishes you found this sooner. Uh, it's an amazing resource, worth its value 10 times over. So it is, it makes it very easy to get all your website stuff in place. And then I mentioned this at the beginning: the fast action bonus is tough emails templates. This is available for the next 36 hours only, and that is lawyer drafted email templates for when your client doesn't get back to you, is laid on an invoice and other tough situations. And you get that when you join Cover Your Assets by tomorrow night. And finally, we have a fast action bonus that is a 30-minute one-on-one QA call with me. And this is for the first five people to join only. And you get to hop on Zoom with me for a one-on-one call to get all of your questions answered. And there's no risk. I'm so convinced that you'll be blown away by Cover Your Assets. They'll give you your money back if you aren't. If you decide the program isn't a good fit for you, all you have to do is send an email within 14 days and I'll give you a full refund. No questions asked, no homework. You don't have to prove anything to me. I want it to be a good fit. So you can join, take a look, and if you don't like it, you can leave and get your money back. I want you to be like Chris, who was able to stop a copycat from stealing his product. I want you to be like Richard, who felt more confident running his business, knowing that his LSE documents were professionally created. I want you to be like Cecilia, who was able to DIY her marketing and stop dealing with people pushing on her boundaries. I want you to be like Sarah, who was able to impress a client with professionally drafted contracts and say yes when he asked for an NDA last minute. I want you to be like Jenny, who's able to avoid a nightmare client. I want you to be like Jeff, who felt more confident offering his online courses. And I want you to be like Emma, who's able to protect her in-person practice from the risk of online business. And I want you to be like Sybil, who felt more confident she could handle the legal aspects of her business on her own. That is the complete cover assets experience, the step-by-step curriculum, the six coaching calls, the members-only community, the contract template library, the legal checklists and guides, monthly legal workshops, the library of past coaching calls, lifetime access to the content, total value over$15,000. And with that$200 discount, you can get started for just$175 today. Okay, now I'm going to dive into the chat uh for questions. So many questions. Okay, I'm going to open up the QA also. Make sure I can see that. So if you have questions, you can put them in the QA feature, the QA box. Um, and that helps me because the chat goes so fast. Um, so there are questions over there. So yes, there will be a replay on this sending out to your email. Um, I will be sending that tonight as soon as the download upload process finishes. Um Diana, how much is the monthly extension? So you get six months of the community and the calls included. And then after that, if you want to continue, right now it's$45 a month to continue. Um I had somebody else have a question about Lifetime access. Yeah, so there's lifetime access to the content, the curriculum, to the bonuses, to the contract library. It is lifetime access. And then the only thing that's time limited is the support elements, and that is six months. Um, and does Byron, does the course include legal advice support one-on-one? So there's no one-on-one support included. At checkout, there is an option to add a legal strategy session, and that's a one-hour call with me where we create kind of a game plan specific to your business. So I go over like six legal areas with you to find the gaps basically in what you've done so far or in things that you're planning to do. And then I you walk away with an action plan that references the things in the course that will help you take action on those things. So you get direct links to do this thing and do it by using this lesson or this template. So it's a lot fast, it kind of accelerates your speed on going through everything.

Okay.

Absolutely, you're right to charge interest on your payment plans uh because people fail out. And that is a choice that you can make. But I have chosen because one of my values is accessibility. I don't want to charge people more just to spread out the payments for the six months. Um, I do also have a 12-month plan available on the sales page that does have interest on it because that is longer and it's a higher likelihood of failing out. But no, the six-month plan does not have interest. It's the same total cost as the one-time payment. Um, oh, Eden. Thank you for the reminder. I had told you that you would get a freebie for being here, and you absolutely do. Um there it is. I just put the gift in the chat. So this is your um mini disclaimers, template and training. And so that is statements like this is not legal advice, um, this for educational purposes only, that kind of thing, and a video training on how and where to use those things. So that is in the chat. Click on that, open it up. Um, it is, it will expire in a week. So just as long as the replay, just as long as the discount will expire next Wednesday. Um, Jeffrey, do you have access to everything from the program from day one of the payment plan? Yes. No dripped out content, no locks or anything like that. Yep. Um okay, I'm gonna try and get through the QA because I know a lot of people have questions that are unrelated to cover your assets, which is fine. But I wanted to make sure if you're trying to make a choice, I want to make sure to address that too. Um, Brittany, I do not offer contract review services. If you have a question about how you're doing something, you can bring it to the group call and we'll we can all take a look. But I don't offer contract reviews as like a legal service. Okay. Uh Veronica asks, how do your templates work for different states? So they are designed to be used across the US, and most states have very similar laws when it comes to contracts. There are some things that I flag as like things to check on, but they are designed to work across the US. And then there are some places where you'll fill in what your state is and that kind of thing. Um, if you want to be really sure, you can take the template to a local attorney for review, and that is way cheaper than having a custom drafted agreement. Um, probably a couple hundred dollars like over a thousand dollars for custom. So they are designed to be used across the US, but if you want extra reassurance on your state, you can take it to a local attorney for review. Um okay, now I want to get into quite actual like substantive questions. So I know there were a lot of questions about like LLCs and like money stuff around LLCs. I opened a whole can of worms with that with the LLC mistakes section. So one of the questions in the QA is would you suggest having a checking saving credit card for your LLC, any banks you recommend? So 100% yes, you have to have a checking uh account, a business bank account, um, usually checking if you want a savings account, also a savings account that is owned by your LLC. Owned by your LLC. So you have to go in after the LLC exists, after you have the EAN, you go to the bank, you open it in the name of the LLC. That is not optional. Um, so don't use a personal account. Don't use an account you had before the LLC existed, don't use a personal account you opened after the LLC existed either. You have to have a separate account for you owned by your LLC that all of the money goes into and flows out of. So all your client money goes into it, all your expenses flow out of it. For expenses, opening a credit card in the name of the LLC is also a really good idea because then you're not tempted to use your own credit card. Uh, you can use your card to pay business expenses if you file reimbursements religiously every single time, but that is hard to remember. It's logistically more complicated. So my recommendation is to have a credit card in the name of the LLC. And then you pay that credit card with the LLC's bank account. And the reason for that is commingling funds, mixing your personal and business money is one of those big things that can destroy your LLC protection. The court can uh the court can look at that and decide you haven't treated the LLC as its own business and it's not actually a separate legal person from you, and therefore all of your personal assets are available in whatever that lawsuit is. Um, Catherine, how important is the name of your LLC? Are there specific things to keep in mind when choosing a name? So the name, interesting question. It's not that important uh from like the legal entity perspective. Like the important things from the legal perspective is are you using a name that's allowed in your state? So there are some limitations on it, can't be the same as an LLC that already exists. Um, it can't be probably not something offensive, you know. But um beyond that, the other thing to keep in mind is that you have to use the name of the LLC. Uh needs to be the same. Let me phrase this the right way. When you are presenting your business to the public, there needs to be a tie between the name you present to the public and your business entity. So the easiest thing to do is to have your LLC name be the name that you present to the public. So for my example, my business name is Artful Contracts, my LLC name is Artful Contracts LLC. They are the same. But if you don't have the same, so if your LLC is 123XYZ LLC, but your business name is Catherine's uh coaching or something, then you need to have a way to tie the public-facing business name to the LLC name, and you do that by filing a trade name. So you're just adding an extra step if it doesn't match. Um, so Sylvia, following up on that, how to distinguish the name between a DBA and LC. So a DBA doing business ads, same as a trade name, fictitious name. If you if your LLC name is not the one you share to the public, then you need to have a DBA. If your LLC name is the one you share to the public, then you don't need a DBA. So the DBA is kind of like an official nickname that ties the public-facing business business name to the legal entity name. It's a consumer protection measure, so people can find who they're actually doing business with. Trade name is the same as DBA, yes. Okay, I saw Toby had a follow-up on the money question. So money, when I say money has to go through a business account and not a dedicated personal account, do you mean to get the legal separation? Because I'm an enrolled agent and often tell people that at least from a tax standpoint, a personal account is fine as long as it's dedicated to the business funds. Yeah, so from a tax standpoint, it doesn't make a difference because the IRS doesn't see LLCs or tax through pass through entities, but from a legal perspective, from a legal maintaining your uh limited liability, your liability protection, you have to have a separate one. So your advice is is risking people's liability protection. Sorry if that's harsh, but I would not give that advice from a legal perspective. It's probably fine from a tax perspective because the the IRS treats LLCs differently. Um, Diana, if you bought supplies for your business before you bought the LLC, can I add those expenses to the LC? Um, yeah, you can reimburse yourself. Um, sometimes it's easiest to keep a clean break and not do that until after. But um yeah, you can do that. Veronica, your credit card made you put both your name and your business. That's fine. If it's under the business name and has your LC name on there and use your EIN for your business to set it up, then but it also has your name on it, that's fine because they want to tie, you know, who's the person actually using the card to it. Um, that that's normal. Yeah.

Okay.

Sherry, if I loan my business money and it's a short-term loan under six months, do I still need to charge interest? I would recommend treating it as an arm's length transaction, which basically just means follow standard market uh market practices, treat it as if you were strangers. Because if you're giving your business a loan without interest, that's not something you could get uh from a stranger. And so that's probably not a great idea. So I would still, even if it's short term, you're still lending money, and if you want to get paid back, I would still recommend having interest to show that it's not yourself just giving yourself money.

Trading through the questions, make sure I'm getting them all.

Angela, if you prefer if you transfer personal funds to fund your new business account, is that a loan? No, so there's the it doesn't have to be. There's two different ways that you can fund your LLC. You can do it with a loan if you want to make sure that money is paid back, um, or you can do it with a capital contribution, which is kind of like buying uh ownership interest in your LLC. And that is not a loan, it just increases your equity in the business. And so if you close down the business in the future, that's like on your balance sheet as money owed to you. Um, so that does not have to be paid back unless and until you close the business and there's money in it. So that's a way to do it without a loan, and that's a very normal way to do it. You do that as your initial capital contribution, or you can do an additional capital contribution at any time. And so that is a great way to fund your business before you have any money coming in yet. Um, I see S asking about the freebie. There's the gift link again. And separately, there's the sales page again to join. Um, Jeffrey, so if you're asking about the loan to the LLC, would you have to have a contract to regain that interest? If you're asking about the loan to the LLC, I do recommend having a loan document, a promissory note, um, if you do give a loan to your business. So it's documented. Brittany, is assumed name the same as DBA? Yes. Easy one. Um, somebody asked if if there you have to obtain financing with a hard inquiry on your credit reports for my payment plan. No, I offer that payment plan. It's just you just buy it and it will charge over time. It's kind of it's like an improved uh yeah, there's no financing involved or credit reports or anything like that. You just sign up. Veronica, I missed Sylvia. I'm bouncing back and forth with uh with the QA box. So sorry. Uh Sylvia, if we invest in this program without the benefit of an LLC right now, what do you suggest? Sounds like a chicken and egg situation. Yeah, so there are some expenses you're going to have before the LLC exists, and some of those you end up eating. Um, and that you don't you don't get to like write them off as business expenses if you have the LC or actually, I take that back. So it depends if your business exists, if you are taking clients, but you don't have an LLC. So you can still like count this as a business expense if you're operating as a sole proprietor and record it on your Schedule C and it's a tax-deductible business expense, but it's just not something that your LLC paid for. And then you make that transition, you open that business bank, the separate business bank account under your LLC name after the LLC exists. Yeah, there is a little bit of chicken and egg that happens there. And a good bookkeeper, which I know we have a lot of bookkeepers in here, a good bookkeeper can help you uh navigate recording all of that correctly. Um, Brittany, do you need an assumed name if you have an LLC and an S-corp? Or no, an assumed name is the same as a DBA, same as a trade name, same as a fictitious name. It's only necessary if the LLC name doesn't match, does not match the public facing business name that you use. So for me, my LLC name is Artful Contracts LLC. I don't have a DBA because my business name is Artful Contracts. It matches the LLC name. If you have a different public-facing business name, for example, if my LLC name was Amy Nessime LLC, I would need a DBA for Artful Contracts because that's what the public knows. Um, oh, Heath, this is a great Healeth. Sorry, I misread that. Healeth, this is a great question. Uh, do I need to file with USPTO if I have a DBA separate from my LLC name? Yes, those are different things. So DBAs are for consumer protection. The USPTO, a trademark filing is for trademark protection. So having a DBA doesn't protect your ownership of the name at all. It just says, this is my name, so everyone knows I'm tied to this LLC. The USPTO filing a trademark makes sure that no one else across the US can use that same or a similar business name. Can you change your DVA down the road? Yes, you can file, you just file a new one and you can change it. Okay, Brittany, I I'm just not understanding your question. So you have an LLC that is Dr. Brittany Lipinski LLC, and your S Corp is the gymnastics PT, which is your public facing name. So is Dr. Lipinsky LC, Dr. Brittany Lapinsky LLC, is it a separate business, or is it just the way that you the LLC that you run the gymnastics PT under? If if it's the same, so why I'm getting confused is because an S-corp is a tax status for an LLC. So you have an LLC that is taxed as an S-corp, it doesn't have a separate name. So I'm just wondering if you have two separate entities, one that is taxed as an LLC and one that is taxed as an S-corp. Um, but if it is one entity that an LLC that is taxed in an S-corp and the name of the LLC is Dr. Brittany Lapinski LLC, and you run that business with the name the Dunastics PT, then yes, you need a DBA. Yes, you need an assumer's name. Yeah. Yes. Okay. Um, Fiora, yes, you can have multiple DBAs under one LLC. You can do that. I would something to consider though is that if you're running multiple lines of business under one LLC, the risk of all of those lines of business is together. So if one gets sued, the other, the money from the other one is at risk. So if you can separate them logistically and the money coming in is separate and the public perceives them as separate businesses, it might be you might want to consider uh filing two separate LLCs. So it if you want the risk to be separate, then it was separate LLCs is a better route than two DBAs.

Toby, thank you for the confirmation.

LS S-corp is a tax treatment for your LLC. Uh your LLC is taxed as an S-corp. S Corp is not its own thing. Thank you. Thomas, an NIC attorney told you that an LLC will not protect a solopreneur from any liability as long as the solopreneur is the person providing the service. What's my take on that? I think that's overblown. Um I've heard that advice before, and I think it is uh incomplete. Um, there are certain things that you can still be liable for. If you are particularly a licensed professional providing a license, you are still ultimately responsible for that licensed service. But there's a lot of other things that you can be sued for that you are not the person providing under your LLC. So, for example, if you get sued for copyright infringement, uh, then your LLC would protect your personal assets, and you'll you providing personal service has nothing to do with that. So I think that is incomplete advice.

Okay.

Uh sorry, I'm trying to keep up with the questions. There's so many. Um I can't remember if I answered this. Jeff, you asked it when, Jeffrey, you asked when the discount expires, the$200 off expires May 20th at midnight Pacific. Yes, May 20th. Um, Angela, does your logo have to include the LLC in it? No, it doesn't. Um, I you don't have to use it everywhere. You have to use it where you are um like where where you're referencing the business entity. So for example, in your contracts, you should always have the LLC part in the footer of your website where you're talking about copyright and where you're talking about ownership of the site, you should have it uh in your terms on your website, you should have it. But if anywhere that it's presenting more as like marketing or branding, you don't have to include it. Okay, I'm going back to the QA box because I know I missed a bunch over there. Thomas, I see you're asking about the potential for A-corps artist corporations in Colorado. I just don't know a whole lot about that or like what the difference is with an artist corporation. Um, but you asked, is it worth waiting to set up an LLC? Um, and I would say it depends on how far along they are in that process and where you're at now. Because if you wait to set up the LLC, then anything that you do between now and whenever that uh whenever that legislation goes through is at risk. So you're postponing your protection. Um, and then I would weigh that against what benefit you would get. And can you switch later? So can you um can you change your LLC to an A Corp later? So I don't know the exact answer to that, but those are that's what I would consider. Uh Lily, does your contract need to be in your LLC or your DBA name? It should have both. Um, it should say your LLC name, DBA, your DBA name. So it ends up being a pretty long string. And that's what if you have a DBA, that's what you would need to have everywhere that you are showing your business name, your formal legal business name. Um yeah. Yeah, Brittany. So just to like totally confirm on that, um, yes, you should have a DBA so that your legal documentation can say Dr. Brittany Lipinski L C D Ba the Gymnastics P T. Um, so and also I will say that it is not required in every single jurisdiction. So it's possible you live in a jurisdiction that doesn't require it. It is just required in more places than not. It is the vast majority of places it is required. So that's why I talk about it. But there it is possible that you're not in one of those places. Um, but as Veronica said, it is not that expensive generally to do. Um and it's pretty simple, it's just one form. So yeah, 120. But you don't want to file for something. So if you were Brittany, so if you were able to find it and the form exists, then yes, then you need it. Um it's on your address like that, but it is the point is not so that people who do business with you directly who have a contract with you can find you, is so that the public can find you. And assumed name is the same thing. So if somebody sees you, just if they see the gymnastics PT out somewhere and they want to get in touch with you as the business entity, they can go to the Illinois Secretary of State and look up the gymnastics PT and still be able to find the business entity and the person behind it. So that's the goal of it. Okay, I finally clicked. Yay! Okay, good. That's great. Yeah, the goal helps, right? It's so it's it's the goal is consumer protection to help people who what who need to be able to find who's doing business behind something, um, behind a name. Yeah. Because consumer protection doesn't want um people doing business with somebody they can't find and who's a ghost.

Okay. I'm gonna go back to the oh, okay.

I'm going back to the QA box because there's still a bunch over there. So one question Do I violate copyright laws if I copy and paste the text provided by, say, ChatGPT to create content and sell it? So uh maybe hard to know. Um that's a dramatic answer. But so the answer is that you're risking copyright infringement by using Chat GPT just because you don't know the source of that material, because by just the way that large language learning models um work is that they pull from a lot of different places. And a lot of those places are contending that that was infringement. Um, so there's that potential. You can't know your source material, its source material, you can't know how close it is to that source material, so you're risking that. But it's not just overall illegal, you're not overall violating copyright laws. It just depends on what that source material is and how close uh Chat GPT produced something to that source material and whether that source material was obtained in violation of copyright or without the original creator's consent, basically. So there's a whole lot of ifs there. But then on the other side of it, you don't own the copyright in that either, because the copyright office has said that um human authors are required for copyright ownership. And so if you're creating stuff by using Chat GPT, you don't own it. You can still sell it, but you can't stop anyone else from taking it to.

Veronica, so what if you use chat for research and create it yourself?

Um, the exact line is still in litigation and not super clear, but if you are the one doing the writing or doing the visual creation or whatever, then generally, yes, you are the author and research is fine, outlining is fine. Um, but where you get into uncharted waters is like how close you are to the, like if you have to draft something, how close you are to that draft, uh, that is where um it's not like super litigated yet. So it's hard to know exactly. So you're safer if you do all of the final creation yourself, the drafts and the finals yourself. Um, and we have a whole lesson on that inside of cover your assets, too. A couple lessons because it's been like continuing to evolve. Um and yeah. Carissa, can chat write your privacy policy? I'm sure it could, but I have no idea how well it would do, what a good job it would do. Um, so I'm sure it's possible, but I don't know if I recommend it. Um, Brittany, yeah, so you get lifetime access to the course content, the templates, any updates I make to them, um, and the bonuses. And then the only time-limited part is the support. So the six coaching calls, the coaching calls are limited to six months, the members only community is six months, and the recording of past coaching calls is limited to six months.

Okay.

Brittany, I'm glad you worked out the assumed name DBA thing, and thank you, Toby, for chiming in and helping. It is it does get complicated because why are there so many terms for it? No, you're fine. I think having concrete examples really helps people, so that's helpful.

Okay.

Um, I shouldn't put the link in the chat again, and I'm gonna go back to the QA box because I know there's so many things over there. Um, no, nothing that I say counts as legal advice. I'm not your attorney, and it's not the same as working with a lawyer one-on-one. My goal is to give you information um so that you can make good decisions for yourself, but I'm not giving legal advice. Dana, are updates available as laws change? So that's actually part of why I do the like the part of the coaching calls. So each coaching call is an hour long and you can pre-submit questions to it. Um, you can show up with questions, but I start it with like a 10 to 15 minute workshop at the beginning. Uh, and that is an opportunity for me to talk about things either that students have had questions about that have come up a couple of times, or where the law has changed and something or something new, I realize a gap in the program or something like that. Um, so that's my opportunity to like go over new content basically. So every single month we have something new. Um, so yes, I do update it as laws change. And that has actually been great for a lot of this AI stuff. We've talked, we've come back to it a few times as things have changed. Um, and so just last time we went over like AI contract clauses, um, things you can add to your contracts if you use AI with your client work or if you want to prevent your contract, your clients from using AI, like submitting your work through AI, stuff like that. Um, is there confidentiality with the work you do within this program? No, so I'm not your attorney. There's no privilege involved in the stuff we talk about. There is um, I mean, there's like a level of confidentiality in that I'm not gonna like go share everything that you say to me all over the place, but it's not privileged information, it's not like lawyer confidentiality. Yeah, Brittany, yeah, I was changing very quick and there's a lot to stay on top of with this. Julie, the course is tax deductible for your business. Yes, I mean talk to a CPA, but I say yes. I'm not a CPA. Um Keisha, what's your question about my affiliate program? I also didn't realize the time. I said I was gonna stay for half an hour. We are at 36 minutes. Um, but I said I would answer Keisha's questions, I'm waiting for that. Uh thank you guys. Um I do, Veronica, I do have an affiliate program. You can join if you want to. Um I offer 25% commissions on any sales that you make.

Oh, you can't come off mute. Sorry. It's a webinar, it's not a meeting.

Yeah. You could type your question though, or you can email it to me after, actually. Um, and same with everybody. If you have more questions and you want to talk about whether Cover Your Assets is the right fit for you, uh, I'm happy to answer. I am sending emails this week. I'll send out the replay uh this evening around six, probably. It takes a little bit to download and upload and all that. So uh hit reply to any of my emails if you want to talk up with me more about this decision. I know it's a big one. Um I'm gonna put my email in the chat too. It's Amy at artfulcontracts.com. Um or you can send me a DM on Instagram, that works too. Um yeah, happy to answer any questions that you have. Toby coming in with a helpful solution answer again. He's also not a financial advisor, but agrees that in generally it's an ordinary cost of drink business. Um Keisha, okay, so your question about the affiliate program is about the website protection toolkit, the$37 template. Um, can you create them for them using my affiliate program? So I wouldn't recommend you customizing templates for clients ever just because um unless you're an attorney. I so I wouldn't recommend you doing that for them. You can provide them to them by purchasing the toolkit on their behalf and then giving them the templates or giving them the login. Um, just don't customize them for them. So yeah, you can do it that way. Um, and I have uh like web design uh affiliates who do buy it on behalf of their clients just to like create reduce friction. Um or they can buy it themselves because they will have to be the ones doing the customizing. Yeah, perfect. Okay. Thank you all so much for being here. Um, I've gone. We can thank you for sticking around too for so long. Uh, this is great. Again, I am free. I'm I'm available to answer any questions that you have as you make this decision. The$200 discount uh and the trademark roadmap bonus expire on May 20th. Um, so if you are thinking about it, hop in before then. Thank you so much for all of your amazing questions. I'm sorry if I didn't get to you. There were a lot of them. Um and thank you so much for your participation in the chat. And I really hope to see you inside, cover your assets. Good luck with your businesses. Um, I hope everything goes great. And I'll see you next time.