Protect Your Brand Like a Boss: Andrea Sager Breaks Down the Legal Essentials for Small Businesses

In this podcast episode, Lindsey Dollinger interviews Andrea Sager, the founder and CEO of Legalpreneur. Andrea shares her journey from wanting a big law firm job to starting her own law firm after getting fired. She emphasizes the importance of small business owners getting their legal matters in order, including forming an LLC and protecting their intellectual property through trademarks and copyrights. Andrea also discusses the need for terms of use and a privacy policy on websites. They also touch on the specific needs of network marketers and the importance of separate LLCs for different aspects of the business. Andrea Sager is an author and the CEO/Founder of Legalpreneur, a legal tech startup that focuses on helping small businesses cover their assets and get lawyered up and also helping solo attorneys build the law firm of their dreams. While working at a corporate firm, Andrea noticed a gap in the legal industry – no one was catering to the small, innovative start-up brands dominating her social media feeds. As a serial entrepreneur, she knew firsthand the importance of building a business with a solid legal foundation. However, she also knew that many new businesses simply did not have the funds. That realization led to the development of Legalpreneur. Andrea is currently ranked #27 out of 40,000 trademark attorneys in the United States. In addition to running her company, Andrea is a mom of two in Houston and is passionate about all things health, wellness, poker and business. Andrea recently placed 743 out of 23,088 entries in her first World Series of Poker event.

Connect with Lindsay: https://www.lindsaydollinger.com

Connect with Andrea: 

Https://thelegalpreneur.com/ref/243 

Download the free legal checklist here:  https://thelegalpreneur.com/freechecklist/ref/243 

Join the legalpreneur membership here:

https://thelegalpreneur.com/the-legalpreneur-membership/ref/243 

Shop The Contract Shop Bundles:

https://thelegalpreneur.com/thecontractvault/ref/243 

Take the Trademark Course:

https://thelegalpreneur.com/the-trademark-course/ref/243 

This is an AI-transcribed blog of this episode of the Purpose and Pixie Dust Podcast.

(00:00:01) - All right. I believe we're alive. Hello. Hello. Welcome back to The Purpose and Pixie Dust podcast. I'm Lindsey Dillinger, the host of the show. And I am so excited for our guest today, Andrea Sager. She is the founder and CEO of Legal Preneur. And you've probably heard her on a podcast or somewhere before because I know I have. And every time I hear her talk, I learn something new and my mind is always just blown away. So, Andrea, thank you so much for being on our show today. Thanks for having me. I'm excited about this. Yes. Okay. Let's just dive in. So tell everyone if they have been living under a rock and do not know who you are or what you do, you know who you are, what you do, how you started doing, what you do, and we'll go from there. Yeah. So I am Andrea Sager. I'm just honestly a serial entrepreneur, but I got started with my first business in law school.

(00:00:49) - Not that I wasn't busy enough, but I just needed to make money and that's what I did was like, Oh, I'm just going to start a business. Like it's no big deal. But that. I always like to mention that first business because it honestly has led me to every next step. Like I feel very fortunate to have trusted in myself to always lean into what's next. And, you know, every thing that I've done has led me to the next thing. And so I when I graduated from law school, my dream was to have the big law firm job, you know, the big law firm work your way up to partner and, you know, be a workaholic. And I got that big, fancy job. And immediately I was like, oh, no, this is not for me. And I was married at the time. And we had our we had a son at the time. And I just knew very quickly it was not the place for me, but my now ex husband, he was staying home at the time with our son.

(00:01:50) - And so I was the only one bringing home money. And so it was really hard to navigate, you know, like, what do I do? And I think that was really the first the first inklings of me realizing, okay, there's more to life than being a workaholic and working until you're dead. And. By some semblance. The universe was like, okay, you are not taking action to be doing what you should be doing. And so the universe just kind of pushed me and I got fired from big law, which was beautiful. Yeah, it worked out right. What actually happened was we were playing, so we were in Cincinnati, Ohio at the time. We were planning to move to Houston, which is where my family is. And it was a Monday. We put our house for sale on the market Wednesday. I remember texting my husband at the time. I was like, I'm miserable. We have enough money to hold us over. Like, can I just quit right now? And he said, Why don't you just wait until we have a contract on our house? And if he would have given me, like any inkling of yes, do it.

(00:02:50) - I was going to walk out of that anyway. And he was like, just wait until we have a contract on the house. And I was like, You know what? That makes perfect sense. Like, because we don't know how long it's going to take to sell the house. So that was Wednesday. Friday, my boss walks into my office, my boss, my mentor, and I knew immediately what was happening. And I'm like five minorities rolled into one. And so I always knew I always tell people I manifested getting fired because I knew they would have to offer me a severance package. And that's what happened. They basically were like, Hey, you can either be on this performance improvement plan because it just wasn't working out on either end. And they said, you can, you know, be on this pip or you can take this severance and just go now. And I was I was trying to look sad, like I was thinking about it. Yes. But and they're like straight face.

(00:03:38) - Straight face. Yes. It was a Friday morning. And they were like, you know what? Why don't you go home, take the weekend to think about it? And I was like, okay. And they left my office. I remember I texted my husband. I was like, This is the best day ever. I just got fired and I'm on top of the world because so I already had clients lined. Basically. I had people that were waiting on me to go out on my own because they just couldn't afford the big firm rates. The big firm didn't want to serve small businesses. And so I'm on top of the world. I'm like, Yes, this is the best day ever. I get home and my husband is pissed, like, Oh, not happy at all. He's like, not understanding how I got fired and not seeing like that. I'm seeing this as the biggest blessing ever. Yeah, Yeah. So I literally launched my law firm that night and I had my first client and it I'm not going to say it was all like uphill from there, but it's been a beautiful journey.

(00:04:32) - I've been exclusively serving small businesses for the past five and a half years, and it's just something that I've been truly passionate about. Started my law firm and then at the end of 2021, by this time I was divorced and I realized I had more clients than I wanted in my law firm. And we kind of had we had legal preneur as a side hustle at the time where we were just selling the contract templates, and I had always had this idea to go all in with legal preneur to really build out a platform for small businesses. And so at the end of 2021, I was like, it's it's time, it's now or never. So that's when we decided to slowly basically slow things down in the law firm to dedicate to legal preneur. So I would say I've been full time with legal preneur since the end of 2021 and our goal is to really help small businesses cover their assets and get lawyered up. And then we also help attorneys build the law firm of their own dreams. So we now basically marketplace ish.

(00:05:30) - And it's just it's beautiful that we get to serve so many different people and so many different ways. Yeah, I love that. I didn't realize the part about you guys helping attorneys as well. Like I didn't know about that side of the business, so that's really awesome. So for the entrepreneur listening to this, what are the ways that they can currently work with you? Because I know Legal preneur, I feel like has a ton of different like you just started mentioning, but what are those ways?

(00:05:55) - What does that look like?

(00:05:57) - Yeah. So the first thing, basically we can take care of all of your legal stuff. And I would say the first step is getting our legal checklist. So it's at the it's the legal premier.com/legal checklist and actually free checklist. I'll give you the link and everything, but basically this checklist. Teaches you the the legal things you need to know, like your LLC contracts, intellectual property trademarks and copyrights. And then it also gives you the checklist of, okay, this is what you need when you need it, and then an annual checklist, because the legal stuff's never just completely done.

(00:06:35) - It is also, hey, there's things you have to do every single year. And so we cover all of that in the checklist. And what we actually started doing now is once you get the checklist, you go through it. There's we offer a free business audit. So what we have found that. Everybody's business is different. And so everybody does have different needs and it's hard to figure out what you know, it's hard to say what needs people need without really dissecting into their business. And most attorneys charge for this like to have a consult with most attorneys, like they're going to charge you. So we do the business audit for free, go over that, basically let you know, basically give you the prescription like, hey, this is what you have in your business. Like you may already have some things, but this is what you also need to be fully legally protected and really set yourself up for success in business. Because what I see most is a lot of small businesses, they're like, Oh, I'm too small for this, I'm too small for that.

(00:07:34) - And they're like, I'm just a side hustle. But really, the end goal is to be full time or to really be a true business owner. So I tell people, Hey. You have to act as if. Business owners. This is what business owners do. And if you want to be a business owner, you have to do these things. So you really want to. Yeah, you really want to make sure that you are treating it from a like a business from the beginning.

(00:07:57) - Yeah. Yeah. Well, that was going to be my next question. At what point do you recommend that people work with you? Is it like from the very beginning, like it's easiest from that way? I was going to say, I feel like it's probably really hard when people have been in business like two years and then it's like almost I don't want to say too late, but you're not covered for that first two years of exactly something happens, right?

(00:08:18) - I always say you've waited too long to work with an attorney if you now need an attorney.

(00:08:26) - Yeah. When I say need, it's. Oh, got a cease and desist letter. I got sued. Or this is happening. That's happening. If you wait until you need one, you've waited too long. And it's not a matter of is it harder to get protected, it's typically just more expensive. And when you take the proactive approach, we are making sure you're set up the right way from the beginning. And so legal preneur, our signature product is our legal Preneur membership. This gets you all access to your own attorney. Basically, you you hand us your business and we take care of all the legal stuff for you. And we. So it's unlimited emails with your attorney. You get a phone call every month, document review, all the contract templates that you need. We do a trademark filing for like everything's like that's the all encompassing, like hand it to us and we'll take care of it for you. And with that, with the membership, you really don't have to think about it anymore because for a lot of small businesses, they're like, Oh, I don't want to think about this because it seems scary.

(00:09:32) - It's intimidating, and it's because of, you know, everything in the media like, oh, this legal battle, this billion dollar legal battle, whatever. But it doesn't have to be like that at all, especially when you're a small business owner and you're just starting out. It doesn't have to cost very much money at all to get your legal stuff taken care of. And and I always tell people everything is figure out a little love. Marie Forleo Um, we so everything is figure out all you can do it all on your own. I'm not saying like, Hey, you have to work with an attorney, you have to work with legal preneur, you have to do this or that. Just get it done. Like that's rule number one. Just get it done.

(00:10:07) - So what are some of the most common, um, areas I guess that a small business needs protected. So let me just give you a little background. A lot of my listeners are network marketers, direct sales, online tutors or some sort of an online service provider.

(00:10:25) - And then or they create their own products, whether they're digital products or like crafts type things. So is there anything like off the top of your head that you're like, okay, these things these people probably need to have?

(00:10:36) - Yeah. So number one is your LLC and you want that from day one. And I'll explain why. Because if you go to any Facebook group, you're like, Oh, should I be an LLC or a sole proprietor or an S-Corp? You'll get a million different answers from a million different people. And people in the accounting world will typically tell you one thing that is actually not very legally accurate. So I'm always of the belief that you should be an LLC, which is a limited liability company from day one. The reason is so the whole purpose of an LLC is to protect you from liability so you personally will be protected from the debts of your company. And if you're thinking, Oh, I don't have any debts, I don't have any assets that need to be protected, just hear me out.

(00:11:23) - So that's that's the purpose of the LLC. It protects you personally. Now, if you're thinking I don't have assets that need to be protected or the company doesn't have any debts. Anything that you do today as a sole proprietor. So before you're an LLC. Anything you do today. If somebody has a claim against you or the business, they can come after that. Years from now, even if you are an LLC at the time of the lawsuit or whatever is going on. So the way I illustrate is like today's day one and you heard, Oh, just wait till you're making $100,000 in your business a year to file the LLC, which is a very common thing that I hear. So you're like, okay, I'll wait. And then tomorrow you blow up overnight on TikTok and now you're making hundreds of thousands of dollars. And so day three comes along and you remember, Oh, I need to file the LLC. So you do so now. Now you are an LLC and you're set up correctly.

(00:12:20) - Well, then day 100 or day 1000 comes along and you get sued for what happened on day one or day two, and you get sued and you're like, okay, well, this sucks, but at least I'm an LLC, so I'm personally protected. That's actually not the case. Because you were not an LLC the day the act happened, you were not an LLC on day one or day two. So in order to protect against your future assets, to protect you, no future debts, anything in the future, you have to be protected today. And the LLC really isn't a big it's not it is not a big expense at all. Yeah, but it is a necessary expense. Like you do have to spend money, but it will pay off down the road. And a lot of this legal stuff, it's not as sexy as sales and marketing and it doesn't have an immediate ROI and an immediate profit benefit. But when you properly, legally set up your business, you're setting yourself up for future success and potentially for passive income in the future.

(00:13:25) - So one of the true forms of passive income is royalties from licensing that comes from licensing your intellectual property. That's why we preach about intellectual property so much, because we're not just helping small businesses get protected from protect their creations, but we're also setting them up in the future for passive income to get those royalties, those licensing fees. So Disney, they're the number one licensor in the world. They make. Over $50 billion per year through licensing. And that's, you know, everything you see in Target Walmart that is sold by Disney or that is like Disney themed. Yeah, that's not sold by Disney. The only thing Disney did was sign a piece of paper that said, Yeah, you can actually create these products and sell them, but we get a cut of it. Yeah, that is passive income. Yeah. And the other example I love to use is Nike. So obviously we all know Nike and this would never happen, but if Nike had all of their. Products, their physical merchandise in one warehouse.

(00:14:36) - And that warehouse burned down because people think that their physical goods are their most valuable asset. It's not the case because if Nike had all their merchandise in one warehouse and all of that merchandise burned down, would Nike be out of business? No, no. That's because of the intellectual property, the IP. The value in the brand itself. Yes, they're selling products to make money, but they wouldn't have those products to sell if they didn't have the intellectual property.

(00:15:10) - Makes sense. Totally makes sense. So for my friends listening, my listeners. If when they're setting up their LLC. Should they do it in the name of the company? Should they just do like their first and last name? And then it kind of is a blanket over all the things that they do. Do you have a recommendation on that?

(00:15:29) - So it'll depend on your business goals. But for the most part, I mean, it can be any name you want. So your LLC could literally be named XYZ LLC, and then however you're conducting business, it can be filed as a DBA doing business as which is owned by the LLC.

(00:15:46) - But I mean, just for example, Legal Preneur, we started as Legal Preneur LLC, and then we knew, okay, we want to get investors. So investors typically always want a corporation. So then we switched to a corporation, but it's still legal. So is Legal Preneur LLC. Now we're legal Preneur Inc. Gotcha. But if we wanted, we could be. I mean, we could be. Andria Sager, LLC, DBA Legal Preneur Gotcha. Or Andrea Sager, Inc.. DBA Legal Preneur.

(00:16:14) - Okay, that makes sense. Yeah, because I have seen some pretty crazy names for LLC. I was like, Yeah, because.

(00:16:22) - What throws people off is. And do not confuse LLCs with trademarks. And why this throws people off is because when you file an LLC, every state does a search for that business name in the state. Now, why this is not the same as trademarks is number one. Your state is only searching that state. They're not searching other states. And even if you are let's say, you know, I'm Andrea Sager, LLC, the law firm.

(00:17:00) - And then there's and there wants to be Andrea Sager Corporation for a mechanic shop. That's not trademark infringement because it's not the same goods or services or similar goods or services. However, if they file, try to file that corporation in the same state, they'll get denied because of the same Andrea Sager name.

(00:17:22) - Yeah, that makes sense.

(00:17:24) - And so you can get approved for an LLC and still be infringing on somebody's trademark. Yeah. And you can also get your LLC denied and it not be infringing on anybody's trademark. So don't let those to confuse you because so many times we have sent out like a cease and desist letter for a trademark and I get, you know, sassy responses back like, this is so wrong. I filed the LLC, my state did a search and then have to explain. And yeah, it can get messy. So make sure you know the difference.

(00:17:52) - Yes. I actually wanted to ask you about trademarks because I've had some conversations in the past year with some clients about trademarks because they had coaches who didn't explain to them, you know, because one of them particularly that I'm thinking of and I think she might be on here right now, um, was using a name and for her Instagram and all that and I'm like, I like that's such a catchy name.

(00:18:16) - Like I have you checked just to make sure that that's not trademarked? And we looked in, it had been trademarked, you know, like nine different ways. And so can you kind of just give a little rundown what is a trademark? Why is it important to have and why is it also important for us to check that no one is using whatever Instagram, you know, whatever name we're getting ready to come up with already? Because it kind of stunk for her because she'd been doing this online for like 2 or 3 years. Um, so kind of give us that lowdown, if you don't mind.

(00:18:47) - Yeah. So trademarks are your brand identity. This is anything that identifies your brand, your brand name, your logo, your slogan, a product name, a service name, a course name your podcast name. There's so many different things that can be protected with a trademark. So it's not just like this list of things can be protected. It's if it identifies your brand somehow it can be protected with a trademark.

(00:19:11) - So most businesses have more than one trademark that they should be protecting. But absolutely, you should be protecting at least your brand name and. What confuses people is what is trademark infringement because it's not just the same exact name. It's anything similar enough to where consumers are likely to be confused. So you can have a different but similar name than someone and it be infringement. And two businesses can also have the exact same name and it not be infringement. So Delta Airline and Delta, the kitchen sink faucet company same exact name not infringement because they're in two completely different industries. Now, Andrea, my law firm, Andrea Sager Law and by the way, legal names as well need to be protected. Andrea Seager Law is protected with a trademark. If there's Andrew Seager or Sager law firm, that's infringement. If it's the Andrea Seeger Legal and Associates or some any variation thereof, it is infringement. Now if there's Andrea Sager the handbag company. That's not infringement. Because it makes.

(00:20:30) - Sense.

(00:20:31) - I it's not likely that my clients would think that I have a handbag company.

(00:20:36) - Yeah. So like my podcast is called The Purpose and Pixie Dust Podcast. So for people listening, someone couldn't come up with a podcast for women in business and call it, um.

(00:20:50) - Pixie and purpose.

(00:20:51) - Yeah. Pixie dust and purpose or purposeful pixie dust or anything like that, correct?

(00:20:56) - Yeah. Yeah, that would most likely be infringement. Yeah.

(00:20:59) - Yep. Okay. That makes total sense. But not if it were something completely different. Right.

(00:21:05) - So if there was purpose. Yeah, exactly.

(00:21:09) - Yep. Yeah. Okay. Yep. That makes total sense. Yeah. Um, the person who I'm thinking of, I mean, they were doing very similar things, so. But she came up with a new name. That's much better. Um, but now, though, if she loves it, she should probably trademark it, right?

(00:21:26) - Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. And right now, the trademark office is way behind ever since Covid hit because that many more businesses were filing trademarks. And so it's taking at a minimum, 13 to 14 months to be registered.

(00:21:41) - So if you want that trademark protection, you should get started sooner rather than later. Um, and you can you can always just shoot me an email. Andrea at Andrea Sager for more information about trademarks that. So that is my um. My favorite area of practice. I am actually ranked number 27 out of 40,000 trademark attorneys in the United States to get a go. Yeah, the rankings came out last year and I've never ever, like cared about rankings or anything. And but then I because I saw it and I was like, oh, whatever, just, you know, these rankings. But then I looked into it. I was like, wow, they actually like, they aggregated real data. They didn't. Most lawyer lists are like, Oh, top lawyers for this, whatever. And most of those are just like pay to play. But this they just like aggregated all the trademark data and was like, wow, this is actually something to be proud of. So yeah, I had to like, congratulations.

(00:22:39) - Thank you. I had to force myself to like, celebrate myself around that. So I'm actually actually proud of that.

(00:22:45) - Oh, good. I love that. Well, congrats. So everyone needs to ask their trademark questions. And we do actually have a question in the chat. How do you find out if something is trademarked versus being used without a trademark?

(00:22:59) - So this is tricky. You can always search the trademark website, which is uspto.gov, and you can search the test database. However, like I said, infringement is not just the same exact name, it's any similar names. So you do want to make sure that you that you are searching for similar names, which can be hard, difficult to know. Like well what is similar? Like what? Like what are all the possibilities? And this is where it does benefit working with the trademark attorney because we know how to find those similarities. Yeah, that way we know because when, when I file a trademark application, it's not like I'm filing and we're hoping to get approved.

(00:23:36) - I'm not filing an application unless I know we're getting approved. Yeah. So it's such a long process. It's like we're not wasting your time or money, like we're filing this when we know we're going to get approved. Yeah. Now, if somebody doesn't have the trademark, but they are using it in business when it comes to trademarks, whoever is in business first has the rights to the trademark. And there's I don't want to go too far down this rabbit hole because there's so many nuances of so many things that can happen. But let's say. You know, somebody else is using this name, but they don't have the trademark. And you want to go file the trademark. You will most likely get approved for that trademark as long as there's nothing else similar registered. However, if that other party finds out about you or if you try, you get the registration and you're like, Hey, I have this registration, you need to change your name. Well, if they get savvy and go hire a trademark attorney to help them, that trademark attorney is going to look and say, Hey, you were in business first.

(00:24:35) - You actually have the rights to this trademark so you can petition to cancel their trademark. So you can petition to cancel for the first 5 to 6 years that you're registered. Now, like I said, there's a lot of different variables in there. So is it worth it to get the trademark? If so, if you know, somebody else is using it? It depends because when that happens, if let's say, you know, they hire the attorney and they come back and say, hey, we're actually going to petition to cancel the trademark. Nobody wants to go through a cancellation proceeding. It is a lawsuit. It's a lawsuit within the trademark office. And it's not fun for anyone like that can cost you, you know, 20, 30, 40, $50,000. So but that's on both sides. So a lot of times when it comes to that, there's negotiating and you come up with an arrangement, but just know that there's a lot of complications in there. So it's always best to just file from the beginning and get that registration.

(00:25:37) - Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense. Let's switch gears and talk just super briefly about copywriting. At what point is it necessary to officially get something copy copy written? Is that the right copy?

(00:25:51) - Copywriting copy? I think it's copyrighted.

(00:25:54) - I copyrighted. It sounds so weird to say that. Copyrighted? Um, at what point, you know, so say I have like an e-book or materials that I've created for our course. Is it necessary to get those officially copyrighted or what is, you know, what does that look like?

(00:26:11) - Yeah. So copyrights, these are your creative works, your content, your photos, videos, blog posts, ebooks, website, copy. Um, there's it's all your creative work. Yeah. Now, the thing about copyrights is you automatically have federal protection the moment the work is created. So the moment you snap a photo on your phone, you automatically have a federal copyright on it. You don't have to have a registration. That's right. However, you cannot sue someone for copyright infringement unless you have the registration or you and you if you have that registration before somebody infringes, you're eligible for what's called statutory damages.

(00:26:58) - Gotcha. Long story short, statutory damages just make it easier for you to prove damages in court and the other party has to pay your attorney fees. Because the thing about copyrights is, let's say. You made this design? Or you made this course. So you create a course and you sold it and you made ten sales. You made $1,000. I'm just making pretty round numbers here. And then somebody steals the course and they go and sell it and they make $1 million from that course. It's so easy for you to say, hey, I was damaged $1 million. But you you weren't necessarily because even though they made $1 million, that doesn't mean you would have made $1 million if they didn't sell it. Yeah. So copyright cases can get really, really complicated. It's hard to prove those damages. Yeah. Um, but still absolutely worth it. Like you should be paid what you're worth, right? But that's why you want to have the registration is to be eligible for those statutory damages because that does make it a lot easier to prove in court.

(00:28:07) - Okay. Yep. That makes perfect sense. Okay. Websites, because that's something else that a lot of my listeners have. What are some of the basic, um. I'm trying to ask what they are without giving them away because I've bought a few of the templates. What are what are some of the pages, I guess pages you call them on your website that legally we should have if we have our own website?

(00:28:31) - Yeah. So if you have a website which if you're listening and you're an entrepreneur, you probably have a website, there are two things that you want to make sure you have on your website, and that is terms of use and a privacy policy. A privacy policy is required by federal law, and this governs What private information are you collecting? How are you using it? How are you storing it? What are you doing with it? Just answering all those questions about the private information. The terms of use. That's the contract between you and the visitor of your website. If somebody can purchase on your website, it can also be the contract between you and the purchaser on your website.

(00:29:15) - Terms of use are not required by law, but still a very, very good idea to use them. And like you said, Lindsey, we have this templates on our website, so we sell our contract templates. All this is included in the membership. But if you want just the contract templates, we sell them by different niche bundles. So if you are a business coach, you would go and purchase the coaching bundle. Every bundle that we have though, includes a privacy policy in terms of use. So you every bundle has those. Then you have the extra contracts for your niche.

(00:29:46) - Yeah, yeah, I love that. And I highly recommend guys, if you are in one of those industries, especially if you need contracts for something, for client work or whatever, that you check those out. Um, because also if you are working with one on one small group, any sort of service provider, those contracts, yeah, probably. That's probably one of the things I would assume that you deal with most.

(00:30:07) - Maybe not if you're doing a lot of trademark specifically, but I would assume that your company does a lot with contracts, right?

(00:30:14) - Yeah, and that's why we started Legal Preneur. So Legal Preneur. Our first product was the Contract Vault and that was our contract templates. And essentially what happened was a lot of people were coming to me asking for me to draft a contract for them, but they were so new in business, like I would take them through my process to draft the contract for them, but because they were so new, they didn't know what they needed in the contract. So they just ended up using my template anyway. And after that happening for a while I was like, We just need to sell these templates and people can fix it themselves. And then what I always tell people is start with the templates. And because we put best practices in there and then as you get more experience in business, you'll learn what works for you, what doesn't work. And then once you have that information, then you graduate to a custom contract and by that time you'll be more experienced.

(00:31:06) - In business, you have more money. And not that it's, you know, that expensive. I mean, it doesn't cost a lot of money. I would say like if you want a custom course contract, probably 5 to $800 depending on where you go, what it is.

(00:31:19) - Yeah.

(00:31:19) - So still not a ton of money. And by the time that you're ready for that, you are more experienced making that.

(00:31:26) - Yeah. Yeah.

(00:31:27) - And it's, it's not going to be anything for you. It's like, yeah, absolutely right.

(00:31:31) - Yeah. You're like going to cover gotta cover myself and 5 or $800 is much better than the alternative for sure.

(00:31:36) - Exactly.

(00:31:37) - I'm just curious, do you ever run into a specific need from clients that are network marketers or direct sellers?

(00:31:46) - So what I see from those businesses are specifically in LLC. You always want to have your LLC. And if you have an LLC for your actual network marketing, you want a different LLC if you're going to be coaching. Hmm.

(00:32:04) - Interesting.

(00:32:05) - Why is that?

(00:32:07) - Different risk levels. So with the network marketing, you're essentially selling products. And then with coaching, it's a service, right? And. Ultimately, when the question is, hey, should I have have it under the same LLC or separate ones, it just comes down to how much risk you can tolerate that you want to tolerate and to be, you know, have the lowest risk possible. You just want separate LLCs. Okay.

(00:32:36) - Good to know. Good to know. I never would have thought of about that. I just assumed you could stick them all under the same. And you can.

(00:32:43) - Absolutely you can. There's. It's not illegal to do that. Right. But my goal. It's my job to make sure your risk is as low as possible. Yeah. And having the separate entities, that's what lowers your risk. And then for network marketers, besides the LLCs, of course, if you're in coaching, obviously you want to have those contracts.

(00:33:03) - Which one is normally higher risk that you see the coaching side or the product side?

(00:33:10) - I think the coaching side, because when it comes to the products, you do have the back.

(00:33:15) - Like typically the company has your back in the sense and then for coaching, you're on your own. Um, and you just want to make sure that you're buttoned up as much as possible.

(00:33:28) - Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense. Just just out of curiosity, do you ever see company versus. The independent contractors. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I bet you have some good stories with that.

(00:33:43) - I've had some very interesting stories. I think most of them are like the bigger one. Like the big deal issues are when, you know, a new network marketing company comes and poaches like a high earner from another company, and that new company doesn't fulfill their promises. And it's like, what do we do here? Or I know one, I had one probably like 4 or 5 years ago where the company just terminated the relationship and it's like, you know, the seller was just like, I have I honestly have no idea, like where this is coming from.

(00:34:22) - Um, yeah. I mean, I have been in the industry network marketing myself since 2016 and I have heard the stories from like inside, you know, of like, the company did this to someone in the company to that.

(00:34:34) - And it also is a good reminder, though, for network marketers that like, even though you are independent contractors, you are still under the umbrella of a company and they can do something like terminate you. Yeah, like making sure to read up on that contract because you are in a contract with a company. And I think a lot of network marketers tend to forget that. And that can be a tricky thing.

(00:34:58) - Hundred percent.

(00:35:00) - Yeah. And with me as their coach, I'm like, I mean, I can't tell you. Like you have to go and read your contract. Like read the contract, take the contract to a lawyer, have them, you know, like if it's in their. It's in there. Well, this has been super informative. I could literally pick your brain for like another hour with all the like. Okay, so what does this mean? What does this mean? But again, super quickly tell everyone where they can find you, where they can connect with you, how they can work with you even more.

(00:35:28) - And I'll be sure, guys, to put the links for all this in the show notes to.

(00:35:31) - Yeah, so you can find me on Instagram and TikTok. I love TikTok at the Legal Preneur on Instagram, at the Legal Preneur and at Andrea Sager Law I we do have the LegalPreneur Podcast. It is currently on a hiatus, but there are currently still 300, almost 300 episodes up that you can listen to. Still a ton of good legal information, legal education and then of course, the legalpreneur. And you can definitely get that free checklist, that and that business audit. You can get that in the checklist as well.

(00:36:05) - Awesome. Well, Andrea, thank you so, so much. We really appreciate you. Friends, if you were listening to this, please take a screenshot. Share this in your stories. Tag us so that we can have a conversation with you. And really thank you for listening in and go out there and protect your businesses. That's how I'm gonna that's how I'm gonna end them on this one today.

(00:36:23) - Protect your business. Protect yourself. Thank you, Andrea.

(00:36:26) - Thank you.