LLC, contracts, etc

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Hi everyone.
For those of you who offer your coaching expertise in your practice (business), what are the strict requirements?

  • Register your business?

  • Legal disclaimer added to your website?

  • Legally binding coaching contract?

  • LLC or sole proprietorship - to prevent personal lawsuit??

    • Liability insurance?

    As I will be working with clients to help them with pain relief, I’m thinking I definitely need to be safe from a lawsuit, just in case.

Thank you for your suggestions.

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So… there’s no such thing as being “safe from a lawsuit.” People can and do sue for a variety of reasons including (everything imaginable!)

I say that, even though you certainly know it, because I definitely had to tap to quiet my primitive brain’s fear of that in order to discover the Right level of savvy protection for me.

An LLC provides a layer of protection than a sole proprietorship does not. That said, if someone sues they likely sue you and your company. I did choose an LLC route because of limiting liability more than sole prop does, and some options can open up for consulting and company-to-company services.

Hands On Trade Association provides liability services, as do others (but don’t have links):

They cover life coaches. You can call them if you want clarification. And other professional organizations can also offer options.

I do have a disclaimer on Thrivingnow.com – you’re welcome to start with it.

And… like with “legally binding coaching contracts” how they would stand up in court is unknown.

People have strong feelings about these approaches, of course. If I was, for example, entering into a year long contract with someone for significant mutual investment of time/money, I’d put more energy into clarifying the details. I have chosen a different approach, so I do not use a formal contract. The overhead and resistance to overcome is not my YES.

What does this bring up for you? Any specific aspects you are most concerned about? Scenarios?

Rick

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Thank you Rick for your insights!
I will likely go the LLC route. Your disclaimer is thorough and quite good. Thank you.
I definitely need to get started on a webpage. A little bit of hesitancy here - mostly getting myself back into practicing hypnosis. But tapping will play a huge part of my approach.
What does this bring up? Good question. A little nervous getting started - thinking about constructing a website, and establishing resources and such for those who visit my site and show interest.

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Remember, you don’t need a fancy site – nor even a site at all! Some people start with a domain name and redirect it to an X profile (or other social media if you are already active somewhere). Some use one of the single page web-builders just to give enough for people to contact you.

Sometimes people imagine “have to” when, well, freedom oriented people do not respond well to that. If there is something that is more of a YES for building resources, consider that! Lots of ways to share resources including attaching them to email replies.

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Justin Welsh has some potent approaches to “simplify” building a business. To me it focuses MOST of the energy on Engagement and Exploring with potential customers. Here’s what he said today:

How to get started as a Solopreneur:

(even if you have less than 5k followers)

  1. Take the thing you do at work.
  2. Build a simple landing page.
  3. Write copy that describes that thing.
  4. Add a button to “book” a discovery call.
  5. Write content about it for 90 days.
  6. Answer questions on your content.
  7. If people have more, ask them to book.
  8. Ask 5 levels of discovery questions:
  • What’s the problem?
  • What have you tried? How did it work?
  • What is that costing you?
  • How big of a priority is it to fix?
  • When are you hoping to have it fixed?
  1. Send a recap email about what you learned.
  2. Describe how you would fix the problem.
  3. Explain how much it will cost.
  4. Explain how long it will take.
  5. Back into the date they need it fixed by.
  6. Ask them if they would like to get started.
  7. If they say “no”, try again tomorrow.
  8. If they say “yes”, send them a payment link.

Congrats. You’re running a business.

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I like those suggestions about how to get started.
I’ll probably set up an instagram account linked to my practice - and then link it to a website. Pat Flynn, who is an expert on online business stuff recommended using Wordpress. He has a straightforward video on it.
Thanks again Rick!!

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Right. WordPress is the champion. It’s non-trivial, and it’s what I use for my site and Carol Look’s (which I manage). Extremely flexible!

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That’s the approach I’m going to take. Your sites look good!!

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