For the first-time ever, you can now access my full-length live legal training via podcast format!

You’re busy. There’s a lot going on. At the end of a long work day, the last thing you want to do is sit at your computer for another hour. Even if that hour is spent learning how to legally protect your online business. That’s why I’m offering my newest live training – How to Legally Protect Your Online Business: Five Simple Steps That Every Entrepreneur Must Take (before it's too late) – here. Take me on your commute, walk the dog, cook up an amazing meal – and let’s get to it.

In this episode, you’ll hear how to ditch the fear of doing something illegal by…

1. Picking the right business entity so your personal liability is limited
2. Knowing what you need to form your business so it’s done right the first time
3. Choosing the right business insurance so your money is protected
4. Using legitimate contracts and policies so you’re protected with clear boundaries
5. Creating a scope of practice so you can (hopefully) avoid getting sued

Click here to find the full show notes and transcript for this episode.

RESOURCES:

1. Click here for a full tour & BTS of the Ultimate Bundle®
2. Get the best financial deal I’ve ever offered on the Ultimate Bundle® right here
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CONNECT:

1. Get Sam's weekly newsletter, Sam's Sidebar
2. Follow Sam on Instagram
3. Follow Sam on YouTube
4. Subscribe to Sam's Substack, Beyond Business
5. Take Sam's free legal workshop "5 Steps to Legally Protect & Grow Your Online Business"

DISCLAIMER

Hey, hey. And welcome to this very different replay podcast episode for you.

I've never done something like this before and I'm really excited to share this with you

because I always think that I know you're busy and I know you have a lot going on.

I know at the end of a long workday, you probably, like me, don't want to sit in front

of a computer for like another hour, especially if you can listen to it on the go

or, like, listen to it while you're walking or cooking or helping your kids.

So whatever it is, I hope that this makes it a little bit easier.

You'll have to let me know whether or not you like this format or something, because I

would love to do this for you again in the future, but I only know if it's helpful if

you reach out and tell me.

Online Business, Five Simple Steps That Every Entrepreneur Must Take Before It's Too

Late. I'm so excited to be here with you today.

So, let's get started.

So, I always say that it's best at the beginning of a workshop or any sort of

training to block out any of the other distractions that you might have going on.

So, depending on what you're doing, obviously I wanted to design this for you so

that you could listen to it if you are a little busy.

But if there are any optional distractions, let's just agree to close out of any other

apps or put your computer down or whatever.

Sometimes I find that like putting in headphones helps me to focus a little bit

more, even if I'm cooking or something like that.

So let's get focused because I know you're here and you're ready to learn how to legally

protect your business.

You're also going to want to listen all the way through because the end, I'm going to

share some bonuses with you that you can only get for listening to this training and

only for a limited period of time.

So, I always practice what I preach in my trainings because, well, first of all,

legally I should, but then also because I want to show you in like an action what it

actually looks like to talk about legally protecting yourself or your business,

establishing boundaries, scope of practice, all that kind of stuff.

So, I always start out by sharing with you that although I am an attorney, I don't

practice law, right?

Meaning I don't provide legal services.

Like I don't act as anybody's lawyer if people get sued.

Or I don't do like custom work for people., I don't give legal advice to you even if you

purchase something from me.

I never establish that attorney-client relationship with you.

Instead, I sell DIY legal templates and my bestselling Ultimate Bundle program, which

you're going to hear about later.

As long as that's okay with you after a whole big full training.

So, just keep that in mind that today's workshop is educational and informational

only, but I think you're going to get a lot out of it.

So, I want to make sure that you showed up to the right workshop.

So, tell me if this sounds like you.

You can just say yes out loud or nod your head if you're somewhere where you can't talk

out loud. But you're definitely in the right training for your business if you want to

grow an amazing business without wasting time Googling answers to legal questions that

are totally freaking you out.

You might have tried figuring out the legal, financial and insurance set up for your

business on your own, but now you kind of need a trained professional to hand you a

step-by-step plan.

Or maybe you wish that you could just get the legal piece taken care of so you could

focus on doing the work that you love.

If you're new to business, you might feel like you don't know what you don't know about

the legal stuff. I hear that all the time.

You are definitely not alone.

And you might want to make sure that you do it right from the start, so you don't

accidentally land in legal hot water.

Something I hear from my customers all the time is that they are the kind of people who

just like to do things right from the start.

On the other hand, you might be somebody whose business is growing and you want to

make sure that your business is legit before you scale it even more.

On the flip side, I am definitely not the right person for you,

you're looking to skirt the laws or like get rich quick or something like that.

I definitely don't help anybody figure out how to avoid the law.

And I'm also not the right person for you if you just want to hire, if you're looking just

to hire an attorney to do everything for you or represent you in some way because like I

said, I don't do that.

Last but not least, you're in the wrong place if you're going to get annoyed when I

invite you at the end of this very valuable training to learn more about the Ultimate

Bundle, to join us inside of the Ultimate Bundle, only if it's right for you and offer

you a load of free bonuses to do so.

So, in case we don't know each other yet, and

I hope you've been a listener of the podcast, but maybe you're new.

I'm Sam Vander Wielen.

It's so nice to meet you.

I'm so appreciative that you're here.

I am an attorney turned entrepreneur.

I was a corporate litigator for over five years in Philadelphia, where I was born and

raised. And in 2016, I left to start my own health coaching business.

I wanted to do something completely different than the law, and I wanted to pivot

. Really honestly, I just wanted to teach people how to cook because I love to cook.

That's what I do in all my free time.

So, I left in 2016 to start that health coaching business.

But apparently, the universe kind of had other plans for me because as hard as I was

trying to get people to sign up for my health coaching services, And like cooking

packages and all this kind of stuff, my online phone rang off the hook with questions

about legal stuff for online businesses instead.

So, in early 2017, it feels like a million years ago now, I shut down my health coaching

business and I launched Sam Vander Wielen LLC to help you learn how to legally protect

your business.

So, for over now the past five, almost six years, I've helped over 40,000 coaches and

service providers learn how to get paid, get legit contracts in place, form their

businesses, and protect their content from online copycats.

I've been really fortunate to be featured in a lot of online places like Medium and on

Luscious Hustles Podcast multiple times, and I spoke at FearlessCon, and Nutritious Life,

and at WELL Summit.

I've been featured on both the podcast and on the websites or Wellpreneur and Lifestyle

Edit.

The list goes on. I've been very fortunate.

So, when I started my own online business, I had no clue what I was doing in terms of like

probably I would say more of like the marketing online business side of things,

right? I googled everything.

I was buried in every single free guide and checklist.

Like if I ask you to put your hand up right now, if you've done this too.

Like I wish I could see the sea of hands that would probably also go up because I feel

like everybody has gone through that period in online business where they were buried in

free guides and checklist.

So, I also distinctly remember back in 2016, still Googling what is a landing page?

I didn't even understand.

And now I have enough landing pages.

If I had a dollar for every landing page I have, then I would be set.

So, I remember, that stuff was confusing.

Maybe the legal stuff wasn't confusing to me, but that certainly was.

And I really focused and I'm still very focused on building my foundation.

Even as successful as my business has gotten in the last five or six years, I am

consistently focused on my foundation and strengthening that foundation.

So from the start, I decided that I wanted to build a business that was built on a

simple, straightforward digital product suite.

I didn't have a million different things to offer, a million different programs.

I personally didn't offer services and products.

I was just doing digital products.

I also decided really early on I was going to do that through a consistent marketing system

that was primarily based on content that works for me, as I say.

So, sometimes that's SEO type content.

I write really SEO optimized blog posts, and I focus more on keyword stuff and titling and

all of this kind of stuff so that people are consistently finding my content who are

looking for it already instead of going to social media.

And I always joke that it sometimes feels like you're like screaming into a vacuous

void, and just hoping that someone hears you instead.

I always like the idea that with SEO, it's like, well, people are looking for something

and then you give them this like right there when they're looking for it.

But that also means that I also focus on really solid, cornerstone pieces of content

that last that I can continue to share, that I can rework and rebreak out into other

things and other platforms and all that kind of stuff.

So, if you've been in my community, you probably see I have a very consistent

marketing system, primarily evergreen content.

And I did all of that without cold DMS or calls or discounts and launches and all kinds

of crazy stuff. I really kept it pretty simple.

I've built my multi seven figure business on a very simple evergreen platform.

And the whole time I could sleep tight knowing that I'd focused on a solid legal and

financial foundation for my business too, so that I could focus on doing what I love,

which is helping you learn how to legally protect your business.

So, I have to tell you about a crazy moment that even as a lawyer that I had a few years

ago as a kind of midpoint of my entrepreneurial journey.

So let me paint the picture for you.

I was sitting and we work in Philadelphia.

And I was on an SEO meeting with my contractor, Melissa.

And Melissa was looking at where we were getting traffic from and pings and sites and

whatever, all this SEO stuff.

And so, we're going over all of this.

And she tells me, you were getting all these clickthroughs from this website, right?

And she tells me what it is.

And the website name kind of lent itself to like, it sounded to me like it was a business

coach. So, I was like, oh, okay, cool.

Let's go see who she is, because I always get referrals very nicely from business

coaches and programs and schools and certification programs and all this kind of

stuff.

And I just thought, I'll reach out to them and say, thanks, and is there anything I can

do to help you? So, imagine my surprise when I pop in the URL that Melissa told me about

and up pops my website essentially with this person's name and picture swapped out for me.

I'm telling you that all of my customer testimonials were there, with every time Sam

was written, every time the customer mentioned my name, they swapped out this

person for this person's name.

Including all of my clients' pictures, like they even kept the same pictures.

All of my products and descriptions of my products, all of my blog posts, all of my

everything, all the content of all the pages.

Every single page was identically copied, including the design.

There was even a link and a call to action, encouraging people to join my very own

Facebook community that I had at the time.

Don't worry, I don't have that anymore.

It turns out that another lawyer online selling trying to start up a legal templates

business stole my entire website.

The very juicy kind of long story about how and why she did this, it was a whole thing.

And it's for a cup of coffee that we will hopefully have together one day in person.

But you can imagine what happened next.

I basically freaked the heck out.

I was so angry.

I felt like invaded and exposed and I was so mad and sad and just disappointed in this

person. Like, just so many things.

But then my attorney pants kicked in and I got to work.

Within an hour, I had the site taken down.

Within a few hours, I had a letter out the door, the attorney on the phone, begging me

not to sue her.

And then the problem resolved.

Basically, I wanted the thing taken down.

I wanted an apology and I wanted to make sure that the products hadn't been

distributed that kind of, the bigger, it's like a tourniquet.

You've got to stop the bleeding, you know.

So, I know what you might be thinking.

You might be thinking, well, yeah, you're an attorney.

So, like, of course, you knew what to do, right?

But like, what would I do?

And I had already had this business for several years when that had happened to me.

But I can tell you honestly, that like in that moment, there was definitely like, this

ignition and the spark.

I definitely loved what I did before that, and I loved helping people and I understood

what I was doing and all that kind of stuff.

But when that happened, I think it was this little moment that I needed that gave me this

anger of if my customer was in this position, if this r like somebody before they

became my customer, right, my ideal customer, if this happened to them, if this

happened to you without legal protection, without legal knowledge, without the Esquire

after your name, knowing what to do and to have the ability to intimidate somebody, when

you send out what we call a nasty gram to somebody and you have Esquire after your

name, it helps.

How privileged and how lucky I was to know what to do, know how to respond, know what to

say, be able to intimidate.

But I don't ever want anybody to be in that position or anything similar.

Or maybe it's like a client doesn't pay you and they stiff you on payment or a client

quits in your contract earlier, a client starts mimicking or copying you.

There are many other scenarios too.

But I don't ever want you to be in one of those scenarios and be like having all those

same feelings, that same anger, the same invasiveness, all that stuff and not know

what to do. I couldn't imagine having all of those feelings on top of immobilization.

That is not okay with me.

And so, I am still extremely, as you can hopefully tell, fired up to tell you like

that this is why I do what I do.

This is why I help people every single day.

So, I help thousands and thousands of people all over the world every year.

This stuff definitely doesn't just happen to me, unfortunately.

Here are just some of the scary legal moments that my customers experience before they got

the Ultimate Bundle.

Like Annie Miller, for example.

She was done with clients pushing boundaries, asking for refunds, and worrying

that they were getting inspired by her content.

And so, she got the Ultimate Bundleso she could learn what to do and how to have things

shored up. Khloe, on the other hand, had grown her money coaching business really

quickly. And then she realized that she wasn't as confident that what she had built

was protected. She knew she built a really good business, but it kind of escalated

quickly, and then she wasn't sure that it was protected.

Maya, on the other hand, our ultimate model customer, Maya Nicole, she built an

incredible Instagram business this past year too.

And Maya actually shared with us the other day that having the Ultimate Bundle this year

helped her to save tens of thousands of dollars in chargeback threats because she was

able to successfully rebut them and win and keep the money.

Christina watched somebody that she was friendly with online steal parts of her

signature course and start selling it as her own.

She even tried to say that she couldn't remember where she got the email templates

from, which was super interesting.

And Christina was able to successfully navigate that.

These are all real situations that have not only happened to my customers, colleagues,

and friends, but I'm wondering, whether this is maybe something that you're worried about

happening to you too.

I hope it hasn't happened to you already, obviously.

Luckily for you, we're going to hop into the five steps that I'm going to teach you today

that will help you to set the legally legit foundation for your business.

We'll learn how to legally protect yourself, your business's money, your sanity,

boundaries, and even your future.

here's what you'll learn today. Step number one, we'll go over the mindset shift that

you have to make when it comes to legally protecting your business. I'll give you a

little hint. It's where you're going, not where you are right now that matters.

kind of business entity and acting like a business online protects your personal

assets. We'll go over how registering correctly protects you personally. Step

three is that we'll talk about what you have to get in place soon so that you don't owe a

dime if you did get sued, ever. So, we're really covering like worst case scenarios so

that you have nothing else to worry about. Step four, we'll talk about what contracts

you need and the policies that you need that can totally save your vegan bacon. Step

five, I'll teach you the real key to staying legally protected, which is knowing what you

can legally do in your business, otherwise known as scope of practice. I'd love for you

to imagine for a moment how your life would change, how your business would change if

you knew that your content and your business were legally protected. It would be amazing

I imagine that you could have the confidence to know that this is taken care of.

because I know that I have a rock-solid foundation. And yes, I know it's convenient

for me because I'm a lawyer, so I can do that kind of stuff, right? But I help people

do that for their businesses too. And I would be so curious if you took a moment or

if you're taking notes as I'm talking, if you took a moment to think about what would

you love to focus on? What could you focus on more if you had this legal piece taken

care of, you had your financial foundation taken care of.

they'll be able to think more about the clients right and not have so much anxiety

about working with clients. They'll actually be able to sit down and create the course

material. They'll be able to get another certification. Just think, maybe jot down

one to three things that you would be able to focus on in your business, what you would

love to be able to focus on in your business if you knew that you had this piece taken

care of.

when it comes to legally protecting your business. So first, we have to understand

how the U.S. legal system works, and this applies to many other countries outside the

U.S., unfortunately. But the U.S. is especially known as being a pretty litigious

place.

show Married at First Sight, which whenever I'm like really low on content, that's what

I go do. So Pastor Cal, who is one of the experts on Married at First Sight. In case

you're not familiar, Married at First Sight is this reality show where people get

married without ever having met before and they're paired up by this team of

psychologists and like religious experts and all these different people who decide based

on a series of interviews and tests and surveys and all this, that these people are

soul mates. So, it's very interesting.

go and visit the couples and he goes and visits a couple that has like fallen head

over heels fast. Like they were one of the couples that was like it felt like love at

first sight, where some of the other couples take weeks and months to warm up to each

other if they ever do.

super happy, the husband is still kind of like hedging his bets. And Pastor Cal laid

down his best advice for this guy. He was saying that you can't wait to see if this

works out, to then start sharing your love, your feelings, your emotions, and then go

all in. It's going all in that's going to allow you to fall in love with her truly and

deeply.

similar to what happens in your business, because I think what what people do

sometimes is that they think, okay, when my business is successful, then I'll bet on it.

Then I'll believe in myself enough that I will invest in myself. I will do the

foundational things like I'll legitimize it with legal stuff and financial stuff, or

I'll upgrade something. I'll get a website. But that's not how it works, right? We get

this stuff and that's part of what makes it legitimate and that's part of what helps it

to grow. It's not the other way around. So, let me ask you this. Do you ever catch

yourself doing this? You can just say yes out loud to yourself or not, if you're out

amongst people. Do you ever find yourself stalking people in your industry who look

like they've made it, but yet you don't have the confidence to make it happen for

yourself? Or maybe you feel that way?

I feel like I do that all the time. Do you feel like you played a little safe so that

you have an easy out if your business fails? I think a lot of us, if we got honest with

ourselves, we we do that throughout our business journeys. I still do that where

it's like, well, this is good enough, right, because it feels scary to go for more.

Your thoughts are impacting your actions. We have to stop believing that this might not

work out and start planning for it to work out. So when it comes to legally protecting

your business, we're setting ourselves up for current and future success. We're

putting ourselves in the best position possible. In other words, your future

proofing your business.

to where you're headed. We're protecting what you're building, not just what you've

got now. This was where this was like the greatest I think shift that I made.

Absolutely 100 percent free, mindset shift tip. And there's no harm in trying it, in my

opinion.

business that was kind of growing, still small, to being like beyond my wildest

dreams because I stopped acting like the business I was at that moment and started

being like, okay, what's my goal? Let me get like really clear on what exactly I want

here. And then what would that kind of business be doing? What would the CEO of

that business may be doing day to day? What would her task be? What would she not be

doing? What would she be offloading? What would she not have time for? What would she

prioritize?

of a sudden the universe was like, well, I shouldn't say all of a sudden because I'm a

big -- I don't like to sugarcoat things and make it sound like all you have to do is

like change this mindset and then it happens. It was a lot of hard work, but by

doing that and making a series of good decisions and a lot of hard work and grit

and making mistakes and learning from them and reflecting and not giving up, the

business grew. But I think that changing that mindset was the catalyst for that

growth.

want to go, what kind of business are you building here, that kind of business needs

legal protection. In fact, legal protection will get you there. There are immediate

benefits to getting legal stuff in place. So for one, you're going to look and be

professional, which is going to attract good clients. You're going to get paid on time,

which any growing business needs cash flow. You're going to protect your content, which

is your intellectual property. It's really important for any legitimate business.

You'll set clear boundaries so that you're not running around and losing your mind,

which you're going to need to be able to grow your business. Because if you're

spinning your wheels and spending too much time with clients and going above and beyond

and offering them things that you didn't ever promise them because you don't want

them to feel bad or there was some miscommunication, you're not going to be

able to grow your business.

intend to pay you, who intend to show up on time, who really respect you, and are going

to get a lot out of your work together. And by getting a lot out of your work together,

they're going to get a lot of results, which is what's going to push them to tell their

friend Paula about it when they're out to coffee. So it's really important.

said, I feel a huge weight lifted off my shoulders knowing that I'm protecting myself

and fine tuning my scope of practice with my online course. I didn't realize how much it

was holding me back until now. So many people share such a similar sentiment with

me.

personally. So with registering your business, we want to personally separate you

from your business so that if and when something was a problem, only the businesses

assets are at risk. This legal concept is called personal liability protection. You

might have heard of it before.

work. You do that by choosing first a business entity type to register your

business as. So some business entity types are LLCs, a corporation, sole

proprietorship, a partnership, et cetera. And so in your state, they'll have steps for

you to file as an LLC or file as a sole proprietor. It's you choose at first what

kind of business entity you want to be, and then you file as that you follow your

state's steps.

anything else that they might require as follow up. And usually as soon as you do so,

most states are online and they just instantly are very soon thereafter will

email you or mail you official documentation, might be called Articles of

Formation or Incorporation. Every state, of course, is different. I wish we could all

get on the same page. It would make my life easier. And then hooray, your business is

registered. It's really as simple as that. You go through those steps. These are all

steps I teach really in depth inside the Ultimate Bundle.

really it's that first step I was talking about. That's the, not the trickiest, but I

guess it requires the most decision making. Because in that stage, most people are

deciding in our types of businesses with online coaching, service providing

businesses, people are deciding, should I register as a sole proprietor or some states

call it a sole proprietorship or should I register my business as an LLC?

know the difference and maybe you can decide. So a sole proprietorship is just a

type of business entity that a lot of solo entrepreneurs start with. A sole

proprietorship can only ever be owned by one person, meaning you can’t have business

partners. And with a sole proprietorship, I just need you to know that you get zero

personal liability protection, zilch.

personally are not liable for what happens in your business, you don't get any of that

with a sole proprietorship. So what that means is that if your business ever gets

sued or it owes a debt to someone or something bad happens in your business, any

of your personal assets are fair game because you personally are responsible for

whatever happens in the business.

LLC stands for limited liability company, is just another kind of business entity. So

it's another option. It's like either sole proprietor or LLC or partnership or

whatever. So it's just another option. And with an LLC, you can own an LLC by yourself,

or you can own an LLC with many business partners or one business partner. That

option is open to you, but you can also just own an LLC by yourself. When you own an LLC

by yourself, it's called a single member LLC.

personal liability protection, which is the most amount of personal liability protection

that you can get. There's no absolute personal liability protection, but LLCs do

grant their members limited personal liability protection, which means that you

are personally separated and insulated from the actions of your LLC. As long as you

properly act like an LLC, which is something that I teach about a lot, both in my content

and in the bundle. And we're going to talk about it right now.

do in your business is between your LLC and your client or the purchaser or the

customer. So that would include things like contracts and website policies, your

insurance policy, your bank accounts, all of those kinds of things. Because by building a

barrier between you personally and your business, you maintain that personal

liability protection that the LLC entitles you to.

business's name, signing on behalf of your business, having your insurance, all of that

stuff, we're continuing to build up this brick wall between you as a person and your

business that you just own. That's what we want to continue to work on. It's an

everyday thing as a business owner. Having an LLC is not the end of the legal

story though. So it's not just like, oh, okay, I got an LLC now, I don't need to

worry about any other legal stuff. You have to continue to act like an LLC. You have to

have some of the other pieces in place that we're talking about today. And you have to

maintain this personal and business separation carefully and in an organized

manner moving forward.

should not be mixed. They should not be commingled in the same account, or you

shouldn't be using the same credit card to charge personal expenses and business

expenses. Everything has to be separate. Your contracts have to be in the name of

your LLC. You have to sign on behalf of your LLC. You need detailed and clean bookkeeping

records. You have to make it clear that you're an LLC when you're doing branding or

marketing, that kind of stuff.

far about how simple it is, how simple it can be to grow a legally legit business. So

step number three is what you have to get in place ASAP so you don't owe a dime if you

get sued because we want to go over the worst case scenarios that we just remove

that as even being an issue. We're going to talk about how to set up your business

money.

take those registration documents that we got from the state, we take our PIN number,

you register for an ID number with the IRS and you go to a bank and you open a business

checking and savings account. The business checking and savings account should be in

the name of your business or your LLC if you have that. And then you connect that

business checking and savings account to a PayPal account or something similar that

you're going to use online.

insurance after we've set up our business and we've set up our business bank account

is because business insurance financially protects you in a lawsuit by providing you

with a lawyer, paying the lawyer's bill, and then paying for any settlement or judgment

against your business. So in other words, you're not financially responsible, even if

you get sued.

anything anymore. That's wonderful and that's step number one. But then the other

issue would be like, well, I don't want your business to be financially liable for that

either, because it's going to be really, really expensive. And any lawsuit would

probably bankrupt a business. So that's why we get business insurance, because they step

in and provide you with a lawyer and pay the settlement or judgment for anything that's

covered by the policy.

business insurance. Which type you need depends on what you do, how you work with

people, and how much coverage you want. One of the most popular types is professional

liability insurance. It's otherwise known as errors and omissions, E&O, that kind of

stuff.

made in your services and your offers or alleged mistakes. Keep that in mind. So this

is what people have said. Like I went to Sam and she told me to eat coconut and I got

sick because I'm allergic to coconut, something like that. Or I worked out with

Sam as my personal trainer and I broke my ankle or, well, that's a bad example because

that's actually for commercial general liability.

some sort of gastrointestinal distress from some diet I recommended, or I recommended

some financial plan and it made their savings dwindle down or I told them to get

some career, and they hated the career and everything in their life went to hell. And

so now they blame me. So it's basically professional liability covers what people

say like you did wrong, bad advice that you gave them that made something go wrong or a

tip that impacted them or hurt them or something like that.

business insurance is commercial general liability insurance. Sometimes online

entrepreneurs need this. Sometimes they don't. Pretty much every online entrepreneur

needs professional liability. But with commercial general liability, it depends.

Commercial general liability covers bodily injury and property damage to someone else's

property, as well as libel and slander. So if you offer workshops, obviously if you

teach in person, if you have a physical location, if you do like classes sometimes,

anything like that, you definitely want to talk to somebody about commercial general

liability.

There's also like cyber liability, social media policies, financial policies, all

different kinds of things. You can get an umbrella policy. So it's something to look

into if you’re, obviously ,if you're starting up your business and you've taken

these steps, but it's something to look into in order to financially protect your

business and by doing so yourself.

vegan bacon. So attorney prepared contracts and policies prevent the wrong kind of

people from working with you in the first place. Like I know sometimes people are

like, I don't know if I want to send such a serious contract because I don't want to

scare anybody off. And I'm like, first, maybe there's a misconception that, well, at

least I can just speak from my contracts personally, my contract templates. They're

not scary, not super long, they don't yell at anyone. They don't do anything terrible.

So that's one.

my opinion, then I wouldn't want to work with someone like that because you're not

asking them to do anything crazy. You're just asking them to commit to stuff you've

already spoken about. So if they're not willing to do that, you have to ask yourself

why.

so many of our customers say the same thing, is that contract set clear boundaries so you

can prevent those awkward conversations, creating rules on the fly, which is

exhausting and takes up a lot of time, or not knowing how to navigate a sticky

situation. It just cuts all of the decision fatigue, all that background mental noise

that we have as business owners. And frankly, we have enough to do, I think.

The terms of your work together instead are laid out nicely and in an easy to read

contract that's specific to what you do. So if you coach clients one-on-one, whether you

have like a three, six or nine-months program or you're a practitioner of some

sort or consultant or you even do like a one off or a VIP day, you would get a one-to-one

client contract for that kind of work.

even if it has access to some content, you would use a group program contract. If you

have something though, like a membership or a course or something that people can

purchase from you when you're sleeping, you're not involved in the onboarding

process or something like that, then that's what you would use, at least what I call and

what I have, as a terms of use template, because that's something that you

incorporate at checkout and you have people agree to it ,instead of signing it because

they're buying it when you're not around. If you want to offer like an affiliate program,

for example, so people can sell your stuff and make a cut for it, you would use an

affiliate agreement contract.

What are they? Where do they go? The three website policies that you need to have for

any website that you have is the website terms and conditions, a website disclaimer,

and a website privacy policy. Those are the three, the terms and conditions, disclaimer,

and privacy policy.

where we go over what your intellectual property rights are that you're asserting

them, how people can share your content, some payment stuff, third party disclaimer,

all of this stuff. We kind of lump all this into the terms and conditions. It's

something you can use to include at checkout when people are purchasing very simple

digital products, like something that's downloadable, an e-book, something like

that. You could also use the terms of use contract. It kind of depends on how and

where you're selling it, but that some people do use terms and conditions for that.

The website disclaimer is very legally very important because that is actually what you

use to disclaim liability, saying we are not responsible for things that happen as a

result of your use of this website, for reading the content, for working with us.

It's really your one shot at trying to tell people, hey, I'm not responsible for what

happens here. You've got to review this on your own. You have to make the best

decision. I can't be responsible for it. I don't know all of the ins and outs of your

situation, all of that kind of stuff.

required. So we don't have a choice as to whether or not we have a legit privacy

policy. We have to have one. So with a privacy policy, that's where we tell people

how we collect information from them on our site, why we do it, where we're using it,

how we're storing it, how we're keeping it safe, what we'll do if something ever

happens with it, like there's a data breach of some sort, who they can contact at your

business if they need to get it removed or changed. All of that kind of stuff has to be

addressed.

there are COPPA requirements. There are requirements for your website if people from

California can visit it. There are requirements for your website if people from

the EU can visit it. It's a wild place out there, but luckily I've got it all covered

in my privacy policy template.

or missed payments, to defend yourself if you're accused of doing or not doing

something by a client, and also to set clear boundaries with your clients when they ask

for something that wasn't promised. You have to make sure, though, that your contracts

are enforceable. That's the key.

I have something, I found something online, my friend sent me something. But are those

contracts enforceable? That's the key. Copy and pasted contracts usually aren't

enforceable in at least the ones that I've seen because they're missing key provisions

that you'll need to actually enforce them. So let's hop in to step number five, our

final step here. The real key to staying legally protected, in my opinion, knowing

what you can do legally in your business. We're talking about scope of practice. What

is scope of practice? Scope of practice is what you can and can't do, teach, talk

about, sell, et cetera based on how you're qualified, educated, certified, and

licensed.

definition for a lot of the different practice areas or professions. So every

state might define what a doctor, a lawyer can do a little bit differently or something

like this, or a nurse or a physical therapist, or if they define personal

trainer, nutritionist, R.D. something like that. So every state's going to be a little

bit different.

scope of practice for what you do, that doesn't mean that you can do whatever you

want. So what it does mean is that you have to make sure you're not doing something that

only other professionals or other areas that have been defined by your state can do.

So a lot of people will write to me and say, I'm a health coach, I'm a career coach, I'm

a money coach, a life coach. None of those things are defined by any state. No state

defines what a life coach can do. No state defines what a health coach can do. What

states do define, though, is what a therapist can do, which would be kind of

what I'd call an umbrella profession to a life coach. What states do define, though,

is what a doctor, a nurse, a physical therapist can do. And those are umbrella

professions to a health coach.

can only do, because then we're going to be accused or it could be slapped with fines.

Or our businesses could be shut down, like what happened to someone in Florida saying

that we are operating outside of our scope of practice.

I spend a lot of time teaching customers how to do and all that kind of stuff is making

sure that we're doing what we say and saying what we do and nothing else. So at least my

style and the way that I work with people is not about teaching. I don't teach you how to

have the right legal docs in place and have the right contracts, but then go out and do

work that you're not allowed to do.

allowed to do and then teach you how to build a successful business doing only what

you're allowed to do because legal documents will not get you out of legal trouble if

you're doing the wrong thing. At the end of the day, consistency is key. It's just going

to be a problem if you're doing something out of turn. It won't matter at all. It will

not help you at all.

financial advisor, therapist, and then you do something that only a therapist, lawyer

or financial advisor can do, that's all that's going to matter at the end of the

day. So the contract won't help you. That's why we need consistency. We need the

contract that helps you, and then we need the behavior that backs that up.

so much today, including where to spend your focus that you should be focused on where

you're headed, not where you are now when it comes to legally protecting your business,

how registering the right business entity protects your personal assets and proper

contracts and policies can totally save your vegan bacon. We've learned what your website

needs to be legally protected. And even like how to figure out what you can legally do

and teach and how to stay within that scope of practice.

tried figuring out the legal financial insurance set up for your business on your

own, but now you're just looking for a step by step plan. I know you wish you could just

get that legal piece taken care of so you can focus on doing the work that you love

like I do every single day. And I also know you want to grow an amazing business without

wasting any more time Googling answers or tossing and turning at night thinking about

legal questions or concerns that are totally freaking you out.

is your time, my friend. It's your time to stop hoping that the universe will protect

your business just because you have good intentions. I know that you do. It's time to

stop the Google and cross my fingers charade for good. It's your time to get legally

legit and stop looking over your shoulder wondering if anybody will notice that you

stole somebody else's privacy policy. It's your time to get legally legit with a proven

step by step system.

don't have any legal background or fancy skills. They've used my templates and my

system that works to legitimize their businesses. And if they can do it, I promise

you that you can too. Thousands of coaches and service providers, just like you, have

used my legal templates and trainings to get legally legit and breathe a gigantic sigh of

relief.

has been the greatest investment in my business thus far.” Our Ultimate Bundle

member, Karen Norton, said, “I'm only halfway through all the legal stuff from the

Ultimate Bundle, and I've already had it save me from a client who I think would have

turned into a bad situation. I'm so grateful for you and all that you do.”

of the legal templates and trainings that you'll need inside of the Ultimate Bundle.

these templates and trainings are your next step to growing a successful business. this

is the exact program and templates that you're going to need to legally legitimize

your business, on board clients safely, hire subcontractors without any worries, get paid

on time, and boldly grow the business of your dreams.

Bundle. The Ultimate Bundle includes ten of my DIY legal templates, which I'll go over.

I'll lay all ten of them out for you. Including a video walkthrough for each and

every template, which I'll explain in a second. You also get access to over 35 on

demand video lessons where I cover everything that we've talked about today,

including how to form an LLC, what the difference is between a sole prop and an

LLC, getting an EIN number, covering your trademarks and copyrights, protecting your

content, working safely with clients, getting business insurance, so much.

Bundle so you can go inside it as often and as for as long as you like. You get free

updates to the Ultimate Bundle. So as the law and online business changes, I make

updates to the trainings, I add trainings, I change the templates, I update the

templates. You get all of that for free. That will always be included for you. You'll

also get access to a private member only community for added support for me, and you

even get two options for different communities, just in case you don't like

Facebook. You also get an exclusive discount and free bonuses just from purchasing from

here, from listening to this training.

Number one, you get that one-to-one client contract for any private work with clients,

consulting, coaching, any service providing. Two, you get a group program contract.

Three, course contract for your memberships or courses. Four, you get the privacy policy

for your website. Five, website disclaimer for your website.

Seven. affiliate agreements. You can start an affiliate program. Eight, an independent

contract for you to send out to people to hire as your own independent contractor. Or

if you act as an independent contractor for other people sometimes and provide services,

you can use it for yourself as well. Number nine, you get the testimonial release to

send your customers. And ten, a mini disclaimer, which is what you put on your

freebies and content to protect it.

one of my legal templates, you also get a how to video tutorial with each and every

template to help fill it out in 15 minutes or less. So with every single template,

you'll get a video where I walk you through step by step how to fill in the blanks,

explaining what the legal language means in English so that you can further customize it

and explain it to anybody who asks. And you can access these documents and those videos

as many times as you want. You can download them as many times as you need.

the Ultimate Bundle video training library, those over 35 on demand video trainings I

talked about. I broke them out into seven modules. So module number one is all about

the beginning stuff, informing your business. Like how to form an LLC, what to

do after you get an LLC, LLC versus sole props, EIN numbers, and local registration

requirements.

business insurance and how to get it, business bank accounts and how to set those

up, and how to take payments from clients. Module number three, I teach you all about

websites and social media. So I teach you about your website policies and how to best

use them. I break down the GDPR and how you need to comply with it. If your website or

your email list is accessible by anyone who is located within the EU, you are legally

required to comply with the GDPR. So I teach you how to do that very easily. I also teach

you how to have legally protected website copies so that you don't say anything by

accident on your website that could get you in trouble. And also how to legally build an

email list.

sign contracts properly so that they're actually enforceable. how to set up an

onboarding system for your clients. how to read contracts that you have to sign so that

you don't sign anything that gets you into trouble, and how to work with minors if you

can.

down to how different ways that you break work with clients and then go over the legal

issues that might come up and how you can navigate them. So I have a section on

one-to-one clients, group programs, courses, and memberships, and all of the scenarios

that could come up in each one. I even teach you in this module number five what to do if

a client doesn't pay and the scope of practice for coaches. I go deep into scope

of practice.

how to copyright content and what that looks like and what is an alternative way to do

that to protect your content. And then I go over trademarks and what falls under the

trademark category, when you should start thinking about it, and basics on how you go

about that process.

module seven, I'm teaching you about how to hire independent contractors and what the

difference is between hiring contractors and employees. I teach you about S-Corps and

becoming an S-Corp. It's really just a taxation status. So I go into that. And I

also teach you how to run an affiliate program legally. It's very important that

you do that legally. People can get themselves into trouble.

be able to quickly and easily complete your contracts and website policies on the fly.

You'll be able to confidently create and promote new products and services knowing

you're protected. You can hire and scale without fear. And you can breathe easy

knowing you've got legal help in your business's corner.

bonuses. I'm so excited for you because these are only available for a very short

time. You actually only have until the end of the day on Wednesday, February 1st at 12

midnight Eastern, in order to take advantage of the juiciest bonuses, in my opinion. And

the sale overall will close on February six. But like I said, those initial bonuses that

we're going to talk about in a second, they're going to fall off on February 1st at

midnight Eastern.

don't know that I'll ever do it again, but I'm very excited to share with you that you

can get the best financial offer of the entire year for the next few days only. You

can get $500 off the pay in full price, which I have actually never done before,

making the Bundle 1899. And that is the lowest it has ever been. I don't know that

you'll ever see this price again.

payment plan when we do a promo. But I wanted to give you a little break too, even

if you need the payment plan. So, for the first time ever and perhaps the last time,

you can get the 12 payment plan of 183. So you can make 12 payments of $183 a month to

get access to the Ultimate Bundle.

or anything like that. They are all required, but that is the absolute lowest

that I've ever offered and perhaps we'll offer for the Ultimate Bundle. And you can

only take advantage of this through February 1st at midnight Eastern.

to the build your own business retreat replay vault, which I'm so excited. This was

a live workshop that I offered. It was a two-day workshop I offered for Ultimate

Bundle members last fall. And it was full of valuable information and workshops on

everything from growing your Instagram, to getting your taxes in order, to human

design, to mindset tips, to me teaching about email marketing. There are all those

trainings are available for you and it's not available for purchase outside of this

offer, so you'll get that bonus if you join us by February 1st.

call with me, which I've actually never just offered this straight up as a bonus for our

Ultimate Bundle members. It’s exclusively for Bundle members only. No one else will be

able to attend. You'll get to attend if you purchase the Ultimate Bundle by February

1st. This call will take place at the beginning of March. And yes, a replay will

be provided if you can't attend live and you'll be able to submit your questions.

Bonus number four is that you're going to get a live trademark training walkthrough.

So what I'm going to do for Ultimate Bundle members only is that I am actually going to

host a live training where I'm going to share my screen and I'm going to go through

and file for a trademark in real time so that you can watch me do it. And if that

helps you to do your own, that would be awesome. And you'll be able to ask me

questions at the end. You'll also get access to that recording, of course.

Affiliate Program, The Legally Legit Way video training. It's a short, actionable

training where I teach you exactly how to set up and run a profitable but legally

protected affiliate program so your affiliates know how to get paid, what counts

as a sale and your business is all protected in the process.

checklist so you can self-assess the best option for you. LLC, a sole proprietorship,

a partnership. We'll cover it all in the checklist so you can determine the best

option.

It's a video workshop that I taught where I taught you how to get more clients on

Instagram without any hey girl DMS or purchasing followers or anything like that.

I taught you what kind of content to post, how to write content that gets your ideal

clients to take action, and how to go from followers to raving clients.

a Diverse and Inclusive Business Workshop. It's a recording of a training that Lattice

Hudson did for us where she taught us how to craft a diversity and inclusion statement

for our business, how to attract diverse clientele, and how to make sure your brand

is inclusive.

or you can head to my website, samvanderwielen.com. You'll see the button

at the top of the screen for you to join by February 1st at midnight. If you're

listening to this after February 1st, you have until February 6th to get in at this

sale and to grab still some of the bonuses. I don't want you to miss out because we

don't know when we'll be offering this again.

business that you're working so hard to build? I know that this could sound like a

lot, but if you went to your local attorney to draft up all of these templates for you,

plus you spent hours and hours with them talking over and training every step of

legally establishing your business, you'd easily be looking at a 10,000 price tag, and

that's on the super cheap side.

offer is well over $7000. But beyond the value of the trainings and the templates

that you'll get, when it comes to the value of a legally protected profitable business,

the sky is the limit. So again, until midnight on February 1st, you have two

payment options. You have a one-time payment option of $1899. It’s the absolute lowest

I've ever, ever, ever offered the Ultimate Bundle and this will not be available again.

You also have access to that 12-payment plan that's available only for this promo. That's

12 payments, 12 monthly payments of $183 per month. So those payments come out

automatically. There's space 30 days apart and all 12 payments are required. You can

use the link down below in the show notes or the button on my website at

Samvanderwielen.com to join now.

6th, you have two payment options. You have a one-time payment of $1999 or a 12 payment

plan of 12 monthly payments of $197. So you can still use the link that's down below.

But if you're listening to this from February 2nd to the 6th, those are the

payment options available to you.

legal templates and trainings and bonuses inside waiting for you, just begging to be

filled out. By tonight, you could easily have a legit client contract, learn how to

form your business or tackle any other legal question that you've got in a jiffy. And

don't forget, you'll also get the email from me to join our incredible community and get

support from me right away. So you can join, clicking the link below. You could

start now for just $183 if you join before February 1st at midnight. I hope you'll take

advantage of the best financial deal of the year.

business once you've got the legal foundation that the Ultimate Bundle will

give you, but you might have some doubts. So you might think like, I don't need to invest

in my legal support for my business yet. So Symone came to me. Symone is a very

successful dating coach and she says, “Before I connected with Sam, I was all over

the place with my legal stuff. But when I signed up for the bundle, which was worth

every single penny, it was just like this guiding light that was able to light my path

and I was able to walk down it. I have all the things that need to go on my website to

keep me solid, and I also learned a lot of really great stuff about owning an online

coaching business. You cannot not afford to get Sam's Ultimate Bundle. It pretty much

has everything you need to get started in your business and protect yourself as your

business grows.”

Bundle to somebody. i'm grateful that i invested. and i think the Ultimate Bundle is

the best out there for anyone that has an online business.” christina says, “you guys

will not be disappointed. this is an invaluable resource to my business.” and

kate says, “you found me on insta when i wasn't even looking for you, and i ended up

paying $2000 and couldn't be happier with the purchase.”

do this stuff on your own. so it's very difficult to pull all this stuff together

from online. i mean, a lot of this information doesn't even exist or it's wrong

and it's going to take you a lot of time. instead, you'll be able to knock the stuff

out really easily with my resources and support, like these Ultimate Bundle members

did.

accomplished.” She did all that in one day. Lynn said, “I wanted to thank you so much

again for making this truly amazing product. We've been slowly but surely working our way

through the modules as needed. And we've set up our LLC, our website’s up and running,

our business insurance is done and we're working on our one-to-one contract now. I

can't thank you enough for helping to greatly simplify this process. We feel super

confident and empowered.”

will I still be legally covered then? So you've got to remember that you do have

lifetime access. So as your business changes or online business changes, I'm there to

help you out.

worth the startup cost. Although the extended payment plan was incredibly helpful

for me as a new business owner. I find myself referring back to it over and over

again. No need to use Google when you have Sam and her community.”

Brittany a couple months later and asked her if I could use this testimonial for my

workshop. She said “This testimonial still rings true. I'm about to launch a new course

and I have it set on my calendar to get it legally legit and referred to the Ultimate

Bundle this week.” So it's really cool that people keep coming back to it.

in the biz or whether you should shop around, well, all I can tell you is that

we've got thousands and thousands of happy customers. Whitney here says, “This might be

the best investment, aside from my business coach strategy session that I made this

year”. Linda said, “Best legal Bundle on the planet. No joke.” This person shared side

note, “Investing in Sam Vander Wielen’s Ultimate Bundle has been the best mood I've

ever made. Having this community here to seek help and insight for me is keeping me

sane. Thank you, Sam.”

Instagram. They said, “Hey, Sam. I'm going through the Ultimate Bundle. And I just

wanted to write you to thank you for all the work that went into this. I've been debating

buying the bundle for a while. I actually bought from another legal person previously

who had advertised a similar product, but the two don't even compare. I was never able

to use hers because it was just so boilerplate with no explanation for what

anything meant. That experience kind of contributed to my hesitation to try the

Ultimate Bundle because I was afraid of falling for another too good to be true

scenario. The Ultimate Bundle is not that at all. I love your walkthroughs and how the

templates clearly outline what needs to be personalized to your specific business. The

other contracts I've tried didn't have that and I didn't feel protected at all. you've

made the stuff I've been dreading easy and understandable. I really appreciate you

putting this out into the world. It's so simplified, but so well done.”

wondering, I don't know if this is something that my business really needs, how do I know

without consulting with an attorney first? So Ultimate Bundle member Nicole Glaser

said, “The bundle covers all the bases I was worried about with my small business and

then some. Sam is very straightforward and to the point which I appreciate because

there's no wasted time. Everything she shares is a wealth of information and is so

included. I am feeling more confident promoting my business and less worried about

legal concerns. And that has led to an increase in sales. It saved me time. It made

me feel less anxious and worried. The only regret I have is that I didn't get it

sooner.”

running the best financial offer of the entire year for 2023. If you have any

questions at all, my DMs are open. I'm at SamVanderWielen on Instagram. You can send

me an email at sam@samvanderwielen.com. You can contact me through my website. There are

all kinds of ways to get in touch, but you can respond to any emails that you get from

me. I still respond and reply to all of my emails myself.

whether it's right for you or you want to clear something up, I'm happy to help. I

just want to make sure you get inside with this best financial offer if you're

interested. So sometimes people ask me a couple of most frequently asked questions

like is the Ultimate Bundle for me if I hadn't started my business yet. Yes, because

a lot of people use the Ultimate Bundle in order to properly start their business.

Bundle who already have it so that we have a really big mix of both. But yes, absolutely,

you can get the Ultimate Bundle if you haven't started your business yet. Yes, it

can also count as a business expense even if you haven't registered your business yet. So

you can send me an email if you want to learn more about that. But yes, you're just

going to keep track, keep your receipt. You're always going to have startup expenses

for your business before you register it and you can count those towards your business

once you do register it, as long as you do it within the next year.

though, for a while, is it too late for you to get legit now? No, it's always better to

just get it in place. I also get asked how quickly can I get the templates set up and

start using them? So people get them set up right away. Sometimes within the same day

that somebody purchases the bundle, they'll fill out a contractor to. They're designed

to take about 15 to 30 minutes for you to complete and they're not meant for you to go

in and complete all of them all at once. So you can go in and get started immediately

and have one filled out really soon.

I have to sign. Yes. How to hire someone? Yes. How to set up an affiliate program?

Yes. And how to get business insurance set up? Yes. How is it different from other

legal template packs with trainings on the market? Well, for one, I actually don't

think there's anything like it. It's the original, but you still get support from me.

I have not only a lot of professional experience as a business lawyer.

at is if someone else is selling something, did they have any experience actually

working with businesses? Did they go straight into a templates company or did

they work as an attorney in a different field? I actually only worked ever with

businesses. So I have that professional experience and now I've been doing this for

five or six years.

training based on what you do. You still get support from me. You get lifetime access to

the program. You get continued updates for free. We continue to host like trainings and

pop up Q&A and all these things that previous members often get invited to. I

keep it updated at no cost to you. There's no additional charges after if you choose

the payment plan. And once you complete that, there are no additional charges.

And I would just say that what sets us apart is that we have very cosy vibes. You know,

it's a cosy place, welcoming place. There's no judgement. I don't do scary legal. I

don't yell at anybody. I'm really there to help you. And I would say too that a lot of

customers just comment on how much they end up learning about business from being in my

program and in my community. I tend to talk a lot about business. People end up asking

me a lot of questions about business stuff. And so that's, I think just a little bonus

side effect.

wait to see you inside of the Ultimate Bundle. I hope that you'll also let me know.

Even if the Bundle is not right for you at this time, I hope you'll let me know if you

liked the ability to be able to listen to this workshop through audio, instead of only

through video. I hope that it was helpful and I hope to see you inside of the Ultimate

Bundle soon. Thank you so much and I'll talk to you soon.