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  • Hey, it’s Marie Forleo and you are watching MarieTV, the place to be to create a business

  • and life you love, and this is kinda like Q&A Tuesday. I’ll tell you what’s going

  • on. There’s a topic that hardly anybody talks about and it is so important. In fact,

  • it’s so important that if you don't get it handled, it’s the kind of thing that

  • can take you and your business out. What I’m talking about is how to protect yourself legally,

  • especially if youre an artist, creator, or entrepreneur. Now, y’all know I am not

  • a lawyer and nor do I play one on MarieTV. However, I have brought an amazing attorney

  • in today who’s gonna help me out, and this woman is incredible. She’s one of our B-School

  • grads, she is so smart, and she’s someone that I turn to when I need legal advice and

  • council.

  • Jo-Na Williamsstory began 15 years ago as a background vocalist for independent artists

  • and it took a fortuitous turn when she was not credited or compensated for her work.

  • As a result, she’s committed her life to educating and protecting artists and entrepreneurs

  • through her work as a lawyer and business adviser through her companies: J. A. Williams

  • Law, The Artist Empowerment Firm and The Artist Empowerment Group. Her clients include Grammy

  • nominated musicians, award winning coaches, talk show hosts, international speakers, and

  • bestselling authors.

  • Jo-Na, thank you so much for being here.

  • Thank you so much, Marie. It’s so great to be here.

  • Well, I’ll tell you, I have wanted to cover this topic for a long time because we get

  • a lot of questions about it and I know it’s a very big subject area and, of course, we

  • could sit here for days, but we ain’t gonna do that. Were gonna keep it focused today

  • about 3 main areas. Really, the most important areas that we need to get handled legally

  • if we want to move ahead and really have a strong legal foundation. So the first is choosing

  • the right business structure. What do we need to know, Jo-Na, about choosing the right business

  • structure? How do we make that decision?

  • Well, first of all, Marie, I’ll just tell you, there are lots of misconceptions about

  • this. Most people think that you should just jump and just register whatever, but the bottom

  • line is is that the most important thing that you need to know about having a business structure

  • is that it protects your personal assets from the debts and liabilities of your company.

  • So it’s basically putting a shield around you personally and allowing your company to

  • contract with your clients or provide services and things like that. So you really wanna

  • make sure that you pick the right one for you and you don't wanna just jump to an LLC.

  • That’s what most people do. They think, “Oh, business structure. Perfect. I’ll

  • just go register an LLC.” But that may not be the best option for you because it depends

  • on your tax situation. You may have kids, you may have other assets, your company might

  • want to grow to a different level. So you really should just talk to an accountant and

  • a lawyer to decide which one is best for you.

  • I love that. And just coming back to my own story, when I first started, I was terrified

  • to even talk to a lawyer because I felt like, “Oh, I can’t afford that.” So that’s

  • actually what I did was talk to my accountant and that was the best thing that I did because

  • exactly as you said, we went through my specific tax situation and he also asked me about where

  • do I see the company going and that’s how we made that decision. So I love that. So

  • for people watching, it doesn't have to cost that much money. Right? I know that that’s…

  • money is always the big thing. That was my big thing. Oh, I can’t afford it. So when

  • it comes to choosing your business structure, if you can’t necessarily afford to go to

  • a lawyer right now, an accountant is a good choice.

  • I think that’s… that is a really great option. If you decide that you can’t afford

  • to have a lawyer work with you, then, yes, talk to an accountant if youre strapped

  • for cash and the most important entities that youthat give you the legal shield are

  • the C corp, the S corp and the LLC. So you wanna speak to your accountant and find out

  • specifically which one would actually work for you based on your tax situation. But I

  • wanna talk about a little bit about the misconception about it… a lawyer being a lot of money.

  • Yeah, absolutely. Because I know that’s what holds so many of us back from even thinking

  • that we can get all this stuff handled is I can’t afford it. So when do you have to

  • say to people if that’s their excuse?

  • Well, as you know in our industry, it’s often that people want to pay for solving

  • a problem versus prevention. Right? And, I mean, and that’s all of us. We allwhen

  • the stuff hits the fan

  • That's when were ready to pay. Of course. I mean, it happens… I didn't want my dog

  • to go pay for him to prevent him to get fleas, but once he got fleas I spent hundreds of

  • dollars to get rid of them and now, of course, I want to prevent them from ever happening

  • again. So same thing.

  • Yes. Absolutely. And so I like to liken it to if you have a car, for example. You wanna

  • pay for regular oil changes, tire rotations and things like that so that your engine doesn't

  • break down. So that’s gonna cost you a lot more money than if you were to just pay for

  • prevention, preventative care. Or if you go to the doctor, for example. Instead of going

  • when youre getting sick, just going regularly and getting your checkups and making sure

  • that your health is ok. It’s the same thing with having a lawyer for your business because

  • your business is its own entity, so it needs to be taken care of, right? So it needs to

  • have that legal health. So you wanna make sure that you have a lawyer on your team,

  • kind of like a doctor for your business.

  • Yeah, no. I mean, that’s great. And that analogy because think about it, and I know

  • this, as the business gets bigger if you don't have the right legal foundation in place,

  • something happening legally can be fatal for your business.

  • Absolutely.

  • It can totally take you out.

  • And I’ve actually… I actually had a client come to me a long time ago and shethis

  • was the situation that happened with her. She didn't get the right advising about her

  • business structure and she ended up paying 50% of what she made that year in taxes and

  • it did shut down her business. So it was heartbreaking for me, but luckily we were able to take care

  • of it. But you don't wanna have something like that happening just because you weren't

  • able to talk to a lawyer or an accountant about the right business structure for you.

  • So it’s something that’s really important to your business to make sure you get that

  • handled.

  • Yeah. So what do we need to know about protecting our goods and services?

  • The thing that you need to know the most about this area is if you don't have something written

  • down, youre creating a bunch of verbal agreements with people that have no terms.

  • So it’s really important that you have a service agreement. And the service agreement

  • is going to outline what youre providing the person, what their obligated to pay, you

  • wanna make sure you have your return policy clearly outlined

  • Yes.

  • ...and for people who are in high risk type of professions, you wanna make sure that you

  • have some type of disclaimer because it’s just as important to know what youre going

  • to be responsible for and what you do as a service provider and what you don't do. So,

  • for example, if youre a health coach, you wanna make sure that you have some type of

  • agreement or some type of disclaimer in there that says, “Hey, I’m not a therapist,

  • I don't prescribe medication,” X, Y, Z. So these are the kind of things that you want.

  • But it’s really important that you talk to a lawyer about this part of it because

  • then theyll be able to look at what are the areas that you arethat you are providing

  • services in and how they can prevent against the ones that you aren’t. So it’s really

  • important to make sure that you talk to an attorney about that part of it.

  • So do you have any idea like a ballpark figure of what someone could expect to pay to get

  • a service agreement and these kind of disclaimers in place?

  • I think it really just depends on the lawyer because some lawyers, they charge on an hourly

  • rate and some of them charge on a flat fee. What you wanna do is interview the ones that

  • youre thinking about hiring and then ask them what their fees are and what’s associated

  • with it and then you can make your decision from there.

  • I love that. And I love this idea of interviewing several lawyers because I’ve worked with

  • many in my career and I wish I wouldve done more of that because you can really get

  • a good sense of how people interact and all that stuff, so perfect answer.

  • It’s a relationship. So you wanna make sure that if this person is gonna be the general

  • counsel in your business and gonna help you with developing your business and understanding

  • what you need as you grow, you wanna make sure you have the right person doing that,

  • so it’s important to interview.

  • Ok, so our final area today is about business relationships, and I think this is the one

  • that you are the most passionate about. So what do we need to do to handle ourselves

  • legally with our team or anyone that were doing business with?

  • Well, Marie, this is one of the areas that I absolutely love talking about because so

  • often it is missed in our industries, especially when youre an online entrepreneur. You

  • are hiring VAs, youre hiring different team members, and it’s so important to make

  • sure that all of your business and that your personal information is protected. So youre

  • exposing them to passwords, client records, all kinds of credit cards.

  • Yes.

  • So it’s really important that you have some type of agreement in place that makes sure

  • that they are not gonna take that information and distribute it outside of your company.

  • So you need to have some type of independent contractor’s agreement and you need to make

  • sure that it has a nondisclosure in it. And that means that you come into my business

  • and you can’t take anything outside of my business when you leave.

  • Yes. Thank sweet heavens. I remember a little while ago when I first started getting all

  • of my NDAs in place, I breathed a sigh of relief because I felt terrified. There’s

  • a lot of sensitive information and a lot of projects and ideas and book things. And I

  • know it maybe not is the best thing in the world that I’m like, “Oh, God. What if

  • that gets out?” But it made me feel so much better and it always makes me feel so much

  • better.

  • It’s so true. And also when youre an online entrepreneur, most of us don't have

  • the privilege of seeing our teams or bringing themor flying them in. So you really need

  • to make sure that you have the right people in place and how you ensure that, take a preventative

  • measure, so to speak, is to make sure that you have something that theyre signing

  • that makes sure that they understand what it is that theyre going to be providing

  • you for services, how youre going to terminate the contract in the event that they don't

  • work out, and all of these various different things like protecting your IP, for example.

  • So it’s really important to have that and the other thing, if youre in the United

  • States, if youre planning on paying someone over 600 dollars in a given year, you wanna

  • make sure that you get their W9 form as well because youre gonna have to issue them

  • what they call a 1099 form at the end of the year so you can write that income off that

  • you paid them.

  • Right. And it’s really important that you do that because you want as much money as

  • you can get in your business and you wanna keep it. You don't wanna pay it to Uncle Sam.

  • Yes. You want to keep it all tight and right and above board.

  • Exactly. And obviously W9s, that’s appropriate for a contract based worker.

  • Absolutely. Absolutely. And also, what I always tell people to do is get the stuff right up

  • front. As soon as somebody comes to you and they want to work with you and you're like,

  • Great, this is gonna be a great relationship, I wanna work with you,” first thing you

  • do is send them the independent contractor’s agreement and then send them a W9 to fill

  • out because if youthe relationship doesn't work out and you decide that you don't want

  • to hire or you don't want to use them anymore, you wanna fire them, it’s gonna be really

  • hard for you to get that form afterwards. So

  • That’s like a pro tip.

  • Yes.

  • That’s a total pro tip. I love it. Get it up front.

  • Get it up front.

  • Jo-Na, thank you so much for being here today. This was fantastic.

  • Thank you so much Marie. It was so much fun.

  • So if you wanna learn more, everything is right down below. So Jo-Na and I have a challenge

  • for you today. If you don't have all your legal ducks in a row, what’s one step you

  • can take right now to start making that happen? Tell us about it in the comments underneath

  • the video.

  • Did you like this one? If so, subscribe and share it with your friends. And if you want

  • even more great resources to create a business and life that you love, plus some personal

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  • Stay on your game and keep going for your dreams because the world needs that special

  • gift that only you have. Thank you so much for watching and I’ll catch you next time

  • on MarieTV.

Hey, it’s Marie Forleo and you are watching MarieTV, the place to be to create a business

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