Cheat Sheet to the Legal Contracts You Need to Grow & Scale Your Business

Introduction

Here at Dotted Lines, we carefully curated our set of contract offerings to specifically fit the most common needs of health, wellness, and nutrition entrepreneurs. We realize it can be overwhelming to look through our contracts offerings and determine which contracts you may need for your business and why. That’s why we decided to create this blog post – to educate you on each of the various contract templates we offer and how each one can help your business.

If you get to the end of this post and start thinking to yourself…wow - I could use all of these contracts then we won’t be surprised! We created this set very intentionally to fit the needs of small business entrepreneurs, and it would be our guess that most people can benefit from all of these contract types. That’s why we created our Legally Ready Bundle. The Legally Ready Bundle comes with every single contract type we have currently created (and any we add in the future) at a significant cost savings (over 50% savings versus buying each contract a la carte).

Without further ado, let’s walk through each of the contracts you will need to get your business legit, protected, and growing.

Contract Types

1.  What contract do I need to make sure the single-member LLC I formed with the state is properly governed and respected as its own entity?

You’ll need our single-member LLC agreement.

The LLC agreement will help you clarify items such as how the entity will be managed, when and how you can take money out of the business, tax treatment, who owns the LLC, how decisions get made, and how the business can ultimately be wound up. If you’ve formed your entity with your secretary of state, that is a great first step, but that is only half the puzzle! You’ll need this LLC agreement to complete the second half of the puzzle.

Remember – your LLC is Part 2 of the puzzle. You must form your entity with your Secretary of State first, and then you will need an LLC agreement to accompany the entity you formed with a state. Not sure where to start on forming your LLC and need some help? First, look on your Secretary of State’s website for instructions.

If that is overwhelming for you or want a quick done-for-you fix, then we recommend jumping ahead and checking out the BizFilings options available through Wolters Kluwer. They’ve made it incredibly easy to form an entity in any state for the payment of a small additional service fee.

2.  What contract do I need to put in front of my one-on-one clients to address items like payment terms, scheduling, refund policies, liability, etc.?

You’ll want to look at our one-on-one client agreement template if you are a health, wellness, or nutrition practitioner that provides services to a client in a personalized, one-on-one setting.

This agreement will allow you to clearly outline your scope of services, set forth your payment terms, enforce your refund policy, address your intellectual property rights, and limit your liability.

3. What contract do I need to have my clients waive any risks inherent in my services?

You’ll want to check out our Assumption of Risk and Release of Liability. This contract was designed for health, wellness, and nutrition professionals who want a contract to make it clear that their clients are assuming all risk and release the practitioner from all liability with respect to the services that the practitioner is providing. We recommend pairing this release with our one-on-one client agreement template.

4. What contract do I need if I offer group coaching services?

You won’t want to miss our group coaching agreement template for health, wellness, and nutrition practitioners. It is perfect for those who offer group coaching sessions. It addresses some similar topics as in the one-on-one client agreement (such as scope of services, payment terms, refund policies, and limiting your liability). But, additionally, it addresses topics unique to a group coaching setting such as confidentiality amongst group members, expectations around codes of conduct of group members, and communication between group members.

5. What contract do I need if I offer an online course, membership, or e-product?

Our Terms of Use template was designed specifically for this purpose! If you offer an online course, membership, or e-product, you need to incorporate these Terms of Use into your business ASAP. Our Terms of Use template contains all the key provisions you’ll need to make sure you are protecting your course content, including robust language on IP protection, payment terms, disclaimers, limits of liability, and refunds. You’ll want to make sure your customers consent to these terms as part of their check out process.

6. What contract do I need if I am going to enter give confidential information about my business to others (e.g., a potential collaborator)?

You’ve worked hard to create your business, and there is plenty of confidential information you have accumulated that needs to be kept confidential! The best way to protect it – through a non-disclosure agreement. This contract template will allow you to protect your valuable sensitive business information from being used, disclosed, or stolen by anyone else without your consent.

7. What contract do I need if I am going to hire independent contractors to assist me (e.g., marketing experts, social media design, SEO optimization, website design)?

As your business grows, it is likely that you will need to bring on help from other industry specialists, 1099 contractors, freelancers, or consultants in the form of engaging these individuals as independent contractors. Our Independent Contractor Agreement DIY contract template was designed for you to quickly set forth the terms upon which you are hiring any independent contractors, addressing issues like scope of services, payment terms, ownership of intellectual property, the length of relationship, confidentiality amongst the parties, liability of your contractor for errors, plus much more. If you are hiring an independent contractor, this agreement will be a gamechanger for you.

8. What contract(s) do I need if I have a website?

Do not delay. You need our Website Disclaimer, Website Privacy Policy, and Website Terms and Conditions. Buy them in a bundle for a significant cost savings.

Our DIY website disclaimer template serves as your place to make various important disclaimers of liability to your website user – such as disclaimers making clear your offerings, services, and products are not a substitute for qualified medical advice and cautioning your website user to always speak to their licensed medical provider, as well as a disclaimers surrounding potential technology outages, affiliate and sponsored arrangements, and testimonials. 

Due to various federal, state, and international laws, it is important that website owners clearly give notice to every website viewer of what data is collected, how is maintained, and how it is used. Our DIY Website Privacy Policy template serves to do just that. It also discloses what types of information may be indirectly collected by visiting the website, what steps you as a business owner take to protect the information, how you deal with information of minors, and how you may or may not disclose information collected through your website.

Our DIY Website Terms and Conditions template makes clear the terms on which any visitor to your website is using your website and some general conditions around using, viewing or accessing any of your content or offerings. The terms and conditions cover topics such as the rules of conduct of using the website, protecting your IP, affiliate and sponsored arrangements, testimonials, your refund policy, a limitation of your liability, and how disputes will be resolved.

11. What education do I need to know about scope of practice if I am an unlicensed practitioner?

We have some amazing educational offerings for our unlicensed practitioner friends.

One of the most difficult pain points for unlicensed health, wellness, & nutrition practitioners can be determining what actions are within their scope of practice and permitted by their own state’s laws. It’s an incredibly complex area, and there are not many practical resources out there to help. Our Scope of Practice State Nutrition Law webinar was designed to fill that gap and empowers you to take charge of this area of your business.

You may have heard that there may be some legal risks associated with utilizing functional lab testing in your nutrition or health coaching practice, but you aren’t sure exactly what those risks or concerns are.  Our Functional Lab Testing webinar breaks down issues related to scope of practice and state nutrition laws and how they relate to functional lab testing! If you are an unlicensed nutritionist, health coach, Certified Nutrition Specialist, or Certified Clinical Nutritionist, we created this webinar to specifically break down these issues for you so you can feel empowered that you are running your business in way that takes into account these risks.

Conclusion

Remember, all members of our Legally Ready Bundle program receive every product we offer and any additions to make to the offering in the future at no additional cost plus exclusive access to our members only community. The Legally Ready Bundle comes with every single contract type we have currently created (and any we add in the future) at a significant cost savings (over 50% savings versus buying each contract a la carte) so we highly recommend this option for those getting started.

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