What Do I Need To Legally Protect My Coaching Business?

Full disclosure   — as a lawyer, I am ALL ABOUT making sure your legal ducks are in a row. UGH — legal. I know, I know. Every coach I have met is intuitive, empathic, creative. They have these attributes that serve them well as coaches. They are driven to serve. Otherwise, they are in the wrong profession! But as business owners, it’s important to occasionally take off the creative, service-provider hat and focus on the business side of your business. What’s the saying? There is time to  w ork  IN  the business and time to work  ON  the business. The first and foremost item on your “Work ON the Business To-do List” should be getting your legal foundation in place to protect the business you are building. So what does protecting your business include? Here are the basics for a solid foundation to protect your business: Create a legal entity . A legal entity creates a separation between the debts, obligations, and risks of your business and your personal asse...

 At In The Know Legal , we teach you what your contract is,  what it does, what the language means, how to customize it, and what the important next steps are. But there are a lot of things that happen before you enter into a contract, and we want to talk about some of that.  Negotiations and communications before entering into the agreement called “parol evidence.”  Now, you may be wondering why I am talking to you about anything that has to do with parol.  Don’t worry, this isn’t crime and punishment  we are talking about – “parol” is actually a French word that literally means “word or speech.” While originally referred to verbal speech, in medieval times, it was also used to refer to legal pleadings.  So, the word “parol” actually refers to both verbal and written correspondence. In law, we use it to refer to words and correspondence outside an Agreement. The Parol Evidence Rule limits the extent to which discussions or writings made prior to, or c...