The Legal Paige® Podcast: Recent Episodes

The Legal Paige™

The Legal Paige® Podcast is a weekly interview show featuring legal, finance, and business tips for creatives and online businesses. We cut through the legal mumbo jumbo and make “scary” things like taxes, finances, business structures, and contracts EASY. You’ll hear from industry leaders on specific topics, and will walk away with bite-sized action steps for making your own entrepreneurial dreams come true. Grab a cup of coffee (or your fave adult beverage) and let’s make your business legally legit.

Surprise… we have a brand new website! 🎉

Honestly, updating our site was not on my 2025 bingo card. The old site was fine, it did the job, and I had a hundred other things on my plate. But after working with an incredible dev team on another project, they started poking holes in thelegalpaige.com—and I realized it was time to make a big change.

Now our new custom Shopify site is live (go to https://thelegalpaige.com
and check it out!) and in this episode, I’m sharing the 5 biggest takeaways from this process so you have a roadmap when it’s your turn to revamp your own website.

Here’s what I cover:

Why website projects always take longer than you think (and how to budget your timeline so you don’t lose your mind).
Why you can’t disappear from the design process—even if you hire amazing experts.
How we used AI to speed things up, but why brand voice and human POV still matter more than anything.
Why templates are fine for the early stages, but custom is the right move when you’re ready to scale.
Why UX beats fancy features every time (and how we simplified navigation + product pages to make buying contracts easier).

This wasn’t just a facelift—it was about making thelegalpaige.com faster, easier to navigate, and more user-friendly for the thousands of small business owners who come to us for contracts, education, and resources.

👉 Go take a spin through the new site at https://thelegalpaige.com
and let me know what you think. If you tag me on Instagram with your favorite part of the new site, I’ll even send you coffee on me ☕—because launching a new website deserves a celebration, and I don’t want to celebrate this milestone alone.

Links and Resources:

Need 1:1 legal support for your business? https://griffithsuazolaw.com/

Join the TLP Facebook Community, a safe space to ask any questions related to the law or your business: https://tlpfacebook.com/

Visit The Legal Paige for contract templates, blogs, and additional legal resources: https://thelegalpaige.com/

Follow me on Instagram: instragram.com/thelegalpaige

If something happened to you tomorrow, would anyone know where your will is—or how to access your business bank account?

In this video I walk you through everything that belongs in your death folder (aka In Case of Death File, Peace-of-Mind Packet, etc.) —the essential plan that protects your loved ones, your clients, and your business if you’re suddenly not here. In it I cover:

✅ What a death folder is and why every business owner needs one
✅ The legal documents to include (wills, trusts, powers of attorney, and more)
✅ How to organize your business accounts, passwords, and client contracts
✅ Why a digital directive is critical for your online assets
✅ Where to safely store your death folder (and who should have access)

👉 Sign up for my free legal training to get my "In Case of Death File Template" FREE and learn how to choose the right “wind-up person” for your business and personal affairs: https://thelegalpaige.com/plan/

Links and Resources:

Need 1:1 legal support for your business? https://griffithsuazolaw.com/

Join the TLP Facebook Community, a safe space to ask any questions related to the law or your business: https://tlpfacebook.com/

Visit The Legal Paige for contract templates, blogs, and additional legal resources: https://thelegalpaige.com/

Follow me on Instagram: instragram.com/thelegalpaige

Insurance might not be the sexiest part of running your business, but it’s one of the most important—and venues are requiring it more than ever from wedding vendors.

In this episode, I’m breaking down the 3 lines of defense every entrepreneur needs: contracts, insurance, and business structure. Including everything you need to know about business liability insurance for wedding vendors, photographers, DJs, planners, and other creatives. We’ll talk about Certificates of Insurance (COIs), “additionally insured” requests, and how to make sure you’re covered before you walk into a venue.

Here’s what I cover:

Real stories from the industry: disco balls falling, priceless vases breaking, interns walking off with wedding gifts
Why most venues now require proof of insurance before you can work an event
What liability insurance actually covers (and why an LLC isn’t enough)
How much coverage you need as a photographer, DJ, florist, or planner
Annual coverage vs. day-of event insurance policies
What a COI is, how to get one quickly, and why venues ask for it
The difference between a certificate holder and being listed as additionally insured

Whether you’re a wedding photographer, DJ, florist, or event planner, this episode will help you understand the insurance requirements venues ask for and protect your business from financial ruin if something goes wrong.

If you’ve been putting this off, let this be your reminder to get covered. Call your insurance agent this week and ask about general liability insurance and COIs for event work. Protect your gear, your business, and your peace of mind.

Links and Resources:

Need 1:1 legal support for your business? https://griffithsuazolaw.com/

Join the TLP Facebook Community, a safe space to ask any questions related to the law or your business: https://tlpfacebook.com/

Visit The Legal Paige for contract templates, blogs, and additional legal resources: https://thelegalpaige.com/

Follow me on Instagram: instragram.com/thelegalpaige

If you’re a photographer who shoots a little bit of everything—families, seniors, boudoir, maternity, newborns, surprise proposals—you do not need a brand-new contract for every single type of session. You just need one strong core contract and the right clauses to plug in.

In this episode of the Legally Legit® Podcast, I’m walking you through how to use the TLP Portrait Photography Contract as your foundation, and then customize it with our brand-new clause bundles. Think of it like a Barbie doll—you don’t need 12 dolls, you just need one with different outfits you can swap depending on the session.

Here’s what I cover:

Why a one-size-fits-all contract isn’t enough to protect you legally
What your core portrait photography contract should include (fees, cancellation, artistic style, image delivery, model releases, liability, etc.)
The difference between wedding contracts and portrait contracts (you need both)
The brand-new Clause Bundles we’ve created at TLP and when to use them:
How to plug these clauses into your contract once and save different versions in your CRM so you’re not reinventing the wheel each time
Why clause bundles are more affordable than buying multiple full-length contracts (but just as legally legit).

At the end of the day, your contracts should be as versatile as you are. If you’re a multi-passionate photographer, you deserve a contract system that saves you time, money, and stress—while still protecting your business.

👉 You can check out the Portrait Photography Contract and all of our Clause Bundles at https://thelegalpaige.com.

And if this episode helped you, would you share it with a fellow photographer who’s juggling multiple types of sessions? The more of us who are covered and confident in our contracts, the better.

Links and Resources:

Need 1:1 legal support for your business? https://griffithsuazolaw.com/

Join the TLP Facebook Community, a safe space to ask any questions related to the law or your business: https://tlpfacebook.com/

Visit The Legal Paige for contract templates, blogs, and additional legal resources: https://thelegalpaige.com/

Follow me on Instagram: instragram.com/thelegalpaige

If you looked at your calendar right now, would it reflect what you actually need as a business owner—or just what everyone else needs from you? Clients, calls, kids, carpool…it all ends up there. But what about the days that keep you grounded, creative, and focused?

In this episode, I’m walking you through the 5 non-negotiable days I put on my calendar every single month. They’ve completely shifted how I feel about running a business and how I show up as a CEO, mom, and human.

These aren’t “someday” days. They’re blocked, protected, and treated like client appointments I can’t cancel. When I skip them, I feel it. When I stick to them, everything in life and business runs smoother.

When you protect your calendar, you’re protecting yourself, your business, and your peace.

Links and Resources:

Need 1:1 legal support for your business? https://griffithsuazolaw.com/

Join the TLP Facebook Community, a safe space to ask any questions related to the law or your business: https://tlpfacebook.com/

Visit The Legal Paige for contract templates, blogs, and additional legal resources: https://thelegalpaige.com/

Follow me on Instagram: instragram.com/thelegalpaige

Life doesn’t pause when you’re running a business… and neither does your business when life gets messy. This summer I was reminded of that in a big way; navigating grief, burnout, family struggles, and still needing to show up for my clients and team.

In this episode, I’m sharing a story from my friend Michelle Gifford that stopped me in my tracks, plus my own “backpack” analogy for what it feels like to carry the constant weight of business when life keeps piling on.

The truth? We can’t put the backpack down. But we can take a few rocks out, ask for help when we need it, and give ourselves permission to do less when we’re running at 30% instead of 100.

Inside this episode, I’m talking about:

The backpack analogy and why business always comes with weight
How I decide on my 3 non-negotiables a day to keep things moving
Why contracts can act as protection when emotions are high with clients
Communicating honestly with clients without oversharing
Finding a business buddy (or even sending a quick voice note) for solidarity
The importance of giving yourself grace and not expecting 100% every day

You are not climbing this mountain alone. Other entrepreneurs are right there with you, figuring out how to balance life, family, and business.

My challenge for you this week? Send a little kindness to someone else carrying their own heavy backpack—maybe a $5 Venmo for coffee, or a simple voice note that says, “I see you.” Those tiny gestures matter more than we realize.

Even on the messy days, your work is worth it.

Links and Resources:

Need 1:1 legal support for your business? https://griffithsuazolaw.com/

Join the TLP Facebook Community, a safe space to ask any questions related to the law or your business: https://tlpfacebook.com/

Visit The Legal Paige for contract templates, blogs, and additional legal resources: https://thelegalpaige.com/

Follow me on Instagram: instragram.com/thelegalpaige

In this week's episode, I want to talk about brand shoots. Not just the pretty photos you see online, but the planning, strategy, and legal protections that go into making them worth your time (and money).

Tune in as I break down exactly how The Legal Paige team approaches brand shoots and content days; from mapping them to the marketing calendar, to choosing a color direction, to making sure contracts and copyright are buttoned up.

With my background as both a photographer and a lawyer, I have the unique perspective most business owners don’t hear: how to walk into a shoot day fully prepared, how to avoid legal headaches down the road, and why B-roll and behind-the-scenes content might just be more valuable than headshots.

Here’s what we cover:

How often to plan brand shoots (and why TLP schedules at least 1–2 a year)
The 4 phases of planning we follow before every shoot
Legal must-haves: contracts, model releases, and property agreements
Copyright vs. commercial license (what’s the difference and why it matters)
Tips for working with photographers, content creators, and even friends-as-models
Why brand shoots are about more than visuals (they’re an energy reset for your business!)

By the end of this episode, you’ll know how to make your next brand shoot strategic, creative, and legally legit—so the photos you take can power your business for months to come.

Mentioned In This Episode:

Brand & Commercial Photography Contract
Model Release Form for Commercial and Branding Photoshoots
Property Release

Use code BRAND20 for 20% off all brand-related contracts and clauses inside the TLP Contract Shop at https://thelegalpaige.com/

Links and Resources:

Need 1:1 legal support for your business? https://griffithsuazolaw.com/

Join the TLP Facebook Community, a safe space to ask any questions related to the law or your business: https://tlpfacebook.com/

Visit The Legal Paige for contract templates, blogs, and additional legal resources: https://thelegalpaige.com/

Follow me on Instagram: instragram.com/thelegalpaige

Hey friends, welcome back! I’m kicking off the second half of Season 7 with a life and business update. The first eight months of 2025 have been nothing short of chaotic, humbling, exhausting, magical, and transformative, all rolled into one. From team shifts and big sales to personal grief and exciting secret projects, I’m sharing it all in this behind-the-scenes recap.

This episode is less about legal tips and more about what it really looks like to be in the trenches as an entrepreneur, leader, mom, and human. Grab your coffee (pumpkin spice latte, anyone?) and let’s sit down for an honest catch-up on all things Legal Paige.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

The highs and lows of leading and restructuring a growing team.
How grief and healing forced me to redefine what true rest looks like.
Why strategy and data-driven decisions are more critical than ever for business owners.
Lessons from conferences, masterminds, and industry events that shaped my perspective.
A sneak peek into the exciting secret project I’ve been quietly building behind the scenes.

This year has reminded me that entrepreneurship is equal parts curveballs and breakthroughs. Whether you’re scaling your team, navigating personal challenges, or dreaming up your next big project, don’t forget to enjoy the journey and honor the call to slow down when you need to.

Links and Resources:

Need 1:1 legal support for your business? https://griffithsuazolaw.com/

Join the TLP Facebook Community, a safe space to ask any questions related to the law or your business: https://tlpfacebook.com/

Visit The Legal Paige for contract templates, blogs, and additional legal resources: https://thelegalpaige.com/

This week we’re diving into one of the best-kept revenue secrets in online business: affiliate marketing. I’m joined by designer, educator, and host of the Breakthrough Brand Podcast, Elizabeth McCravy. If you’ve ever wondered how to make consistent passive income from products you genuinely love, this episode is your step-by-step guide.

Elizabeth has earned hundreds of thousands of dollars in affiliate commissions over the years, and today she’s pulling back the curtain on what works, what doesn’t, and how to do it in a way that feels authentic. We talk systems, taxes, legal obligations, and how to create a long-game strategy for affiliate success. Plus, she shares the exact tools and processes she uses to stay organized, track links, and promote her favorite programs (including ours at The Legal Paige!)

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

How Elizabeth got started with affiliate marketing (hint: it wasn’t strategic at first!)
The systems she uses to manage and grow affiliate revenue to six figures and beyond
Why pretty links, shortcodes, and strategy matter more than you think
How to promote affiliate links authentically to your audience
What to know legally and financially before you start earning affiliate commissions

If you’re looking for a low-lift way to generate extra income in your business without creating a brand new product, this episode is packed with tips for success.

About Elizabeth

Elizabeth McCravy is a Showit website designer, business coach, and host of the Breakthrough Brand Podcast. She’s the creator of the popular courses, Booked Out Designer and Podcast Success Blueprint, and she’s the web designer behind Elizabeth McCravy Shop templates. Elizabeth is a wife, boy mama with a second on the way, and believer based in Nashville, Tennessee.

Website: https://elizabethmccravy.com/paige/ (Use Code: PAIGE)
Podcast: https://elizabethmccravy.com/podcast/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elizabethmccravy/

Links and Resources:

Need 1:1 legal support for your business? https://griffithsuazolaw.com/

Join the TLP Facebook Community, a safe space to ask any questions related to the law or your business: https://tlpfacebook.com/

Visit The Legal Paige for contract templates, blogs, and additional legal resources: https://thelegalpaige.com/

Follow me on Instagram: instragram.com/thelegalpaige

If you’re a photographer looking to diversify your revenue or a creative entrepreneur curious about launching something new, this episode of The Legally Legit Podcast is for you. I’m joined by photo booth queen Cat Bloch, who took her side hustle from zero to seven figures and now teaches others how to do the same.

Cat is sharing everything she’s learned from building and scaling a photo booth company—including the legal lessons, team-building tips, and contract mistakes she learned the hard way. From horror stories (looking at you, drunk wedding guests) to scalable workflows and hiring strategies, Cat gives us the real talk on what it takes to succeed in this space.

Whether you’re curious about adding a booth to your services or dreaming of building a full-fledged company, this episode is packed with wisdom you won’t want to miss.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

The biggest legal and logistical mistakes new photo booth business owners make
Why your first hires (and contracts!) matter as you grow your team
What to include in your cancellation clause, client responsibilities, and model release terms
How to stand out in a crowded market and book high-end events
The tools, templates, and onboarding systems that support a seven-figure service business

Connect with Cat

Cat Bloch on Instagram – @catbloch

Cat’s Course: Photo Booth Mastery – Learn More

Photo Booth Supply Co. – Visit Here

Mentioned in This Episode:

Get 20% OFF select contracts at thelegalpaige.com, use code LEGIT20 at checkout!

Photo Booth Contract

Links and Resources:

Need 1:1 legal support for your business? https://griffithsuazolaw.com/

Join the TLP Facebook Community, a safe space to ask any questions related to the law or your business: https://tlpfacebook.com/

Visit The Legal Paige for contract templates, blogs, and additional legal resources: https://thelegalpaige.com/

Follow me on Instagram: instragram.com/thelegalpaige

This week I’m diving into the money conversation we all need to have as female business owners, but so many of us avoid. In this episode, I’m joined by certified financial planner Molly Nelson of Money Sense with Molly, and she’s sharing what every female business owner should know about getting financially legit for the long haul.

We’re talking savings, retirement, net worth, future planning, recession-proofing, and the real reason so many of us feel behind with money. Molly breaks down financial literacy in a way that’s clear, practical, and designed specifically for entrepreneurs (not corporate employees) so that we can start to change our behaviors and our mindset. And of course, I chime in with the legal pieces that tie in every step of the way.

Whether you’re building your first emergency fund, wondering what kind of retirement account to open, or finally ready to look at your net worth, this conversation with Molly will give you the confidence to move forward.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

How to get financially organized as a creative entrepreneur (without the shame spiral)
The first two numbers every woman business owner should calculate
Retirement planning tips when you don’t have an employer setting it up for you
The difference between a digital directive, death plan, and trust
How to recession-proof your business with simple cash strategies

Connect with Molly:

Website: https://moneysensewithmolly.com

Clarity Calculator (Use code PAIGE for 50% Off)

Instagram: @moneysensewithmolly

Mentioned in This Episode:

Get 20% OFF select contracts at thelegalpaige.com, use code LEGIT20 at checkout:

Digital Directive Template

Links and Resources:

Need 1:1 legal support for your business? https://griffithsuazolaw.com/

Join the TLP Facebook Community, a safe space to ask any questions related to the law or your business: https://tlpfacebook.com/

Visit The Legal Paige for contract templates, blogs, and additional legal resources: https://thelegalpaige.com/

Follow me on Instagram: instragram.com/thelegalpaige

In this episode, I’m diving deep into one of the questions I get asked the most: Can’t I just use ChatGPT to write my contract? I get it. It’s quick, free, and sounds pretty legit. But the truth? It’s not even close to legally safe.

In fact, my legal team and I ran a little experiment. We asked ChatGPT to generate a contract for a wedding photographer and then sat down and tore it apart, clause by clause. In this behind-the-scenes breakdown, I’m walking you through exactly what AI gets wrong (and occasionally right), and why your contracts should never be left up to a robot.

You have worked too hard to build your business and reputation, don’t risk losing it all to an AI drafted contract. Stay protected with attorney-approved contracts at TheLegalPaige.com and have peace of mind knowing you’re legally legit.

What You’ll Learn:

The biggest legal risks of using AI-generated contracts (and what they miss every time)
Why vague legalese isn’t doing you or your clients any favors
The 20+ essential clauses ChatGPT completely forgot to include
What plain language contracts really look like (and why they matter in court)
Why industry-specific legal protections are key to avoiding nightmare client situations

Links and Resources:

Need 1:1 legal support for your business? https://griffithsuazolaw.com/

Join the TLP Facebook Community, a safe space to ask any questions related to the law or your business: https://tlpfacebook.com/

Visit The Legal Paige for contract templates, blogs, and additional legal resources: https://thelegalpaige.com/

Follow me on Instagram: instragram.com/thelegalpaige

Hey friends! This week I’m joined by my partner at Griffith Suazo Law, Alisha Suazo, and we’re answering your most burning questions that we see come up time and time again inside our Facebook Group, inbox, and DMs. These are real-life scenarios that get sticky (and expensive) if you’re not prepared and informed. Today, we’re giving you the clarity and language you need to navigate these sticky situations with confidence.

From handling chargebacks, cancellations, travel fees, and refunds to whether or not a client’s initials count as a signature (spoiler: not really)... we’re breaking down real situations, legal best practices, and the contract and clauses you need to protect your business. If you’ve ever second-guessed how to respond to a client or want to better understand what your contract actually covers in a crisis situation, tune into this episode now.

What You’ll Learn:

What makes a contract legally binding (and what doesn’t)
Why waiting to sign a contract can give you leverage
How to handle last-minute cancellations and refund requests
What to do when a client pushes back on your pricing or travel policy
How to protect yourself from chargebacks, review threats, and venue overreach
Why contract enforcement is just as important as having a contract

Mentioned in This Episode:

BLOG: How and When to Use a Cancellation Contract

Get 20% OFF select contracts at thelegalpaige.com, use code LEGIT20 at checkout:

Fee & Retainer Clause
Right to Adjust Pricing Clause
Travel Fee Clause for Photographers
Refund Contract
Cancellation Contract
Model Release Form
Credit Card Authorization & Chargeback Clause

Links and Resources:

Need 1:1 legal support for your business? https://griffithsuazolaw.com/

Join the TLP Facebook Community, a safe space to ask any questions related to the law or your business: https://tlpfacebook.com/

Visit The Legal Paige for contract templates, blogs, and additional legal resources: https://thelegalpaige.com/

Follow me on Instagram: instragram.com/thelegalpaige

In today’s episode I’m sharing a few of my absolute favorite low-lift legal moves that go a long way in protecting your business. These aren’t giant, complicated legal steps that require a full day blocked on your calendar, instead, they’re simple, impactful, and honestly things you can probably tackle this week.

I’m walking through the quick legal wins I always recommend to clients when they’re feeling overwhelmed or stuck in the "I’ll-get-to-it-later" zone. If that’s you, this episode will be your gentle but firm push to get legally legit with less stress.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

The small contract tweaks that make a big difference in protecting you
The one thing every service provider should add to their contract this year
Why refund and rescheduling policies are your silent superheroes
The easiest way to protect your website and content with one document
My go-to clause for setting boundaries in your client relationships

Mentioned in This Episode:

Get 20% OFF select contracts at thelegalpaige.com, use code LEGIT20 at checkout:

TLP Shop: Website Terms & Conditions + Privacy Policy
TLP Shop: Independent Contractor Agreement
TLP Shop: General Service Agreement

Links and Resources:

Need 1:1 legal support for your business? https://griffithsuazolaw.com/

Join the TLP Facebook Community, a safe space to ask any questions related to the law or your business: https://tlpfacebook.com/

Visit The Legal Paige for contract templates, blogs, and additional legal resources: https://thelegalpaige.com/

Follow me on Instagram: instragram.com/thelegalpaige

In this milestone episode of the Legally Legit Podcast, I’m giving you the full behind-the-scenes download on something that’s been a game-changer in my business—masterminds.

I’m breaking down the masterminds I’ve joined (the good, the amazing, and the ones I’d never recommend), including my honest thoughts on Jasmine Star’s mastermind and what made it such apowerful, high-impact experience for me. Plus, I’m sharing a few horror stories from masterminds-gone-wrong and the red flags to look for before you write that big check.

If you’ve ever wondered, “What do people even do in a mastermind?” or “Is it really worth the investment?” you’ll want to listen to this episode. I’m walking you through exactly what to expect, what makes a mastermind legit, and how to know if you’re in the right season of your business to join one.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

The difference between masterminds and group coaching programs (yes, there’s a BIG difference!)
Red flags to watch out for when choosing a mastermind
How to make the most out of the experience if you do join one
My unfiltered review of Jasmine Star’s mastermind and why it worked so well
Why being in the right room with the right people can completely shift your business

Links and Resources:

Need 1:1 legal support for your business? https://griffithsuazolaw.com/

Join the TLP Facebook Community, a safe space to ask any questions related to the law or your business: https://tlpfacebook.com/

Visit The Legal Paige for contract templates, blogs, and additional legal resources: https://thelegalpaige.com/

Follow me on Instagram: instragram.com/thelegalpaige

Today’s episode dives into a legal mess that’s making waves in the wedding photography world. Imagine this: over 30 couples paid a photographer in full for their wedding photos—and got nothing in return. Some of those weddings were photographed by associate shooters who are now caught in the middle, unsure if they can (or should) release the images to the clients. So what happens next?

I’m breaking down the copyright laws, legal rights, and ethical responsibilities that every associate photographer needs to know. If you’ve ever second shot for another photographer or think you might in the future, this episode is a must-listen!

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

Who actually owns the photos when no contract is in place.
The copyright rights of associate photographers and second shooters.
Whether associate shooters can legally send images to couples.
Why a simple licensing agreement can protect you from legal trouble.
The legal options that scammed couples have to fight back.

Mentioned in This Episode:

Get 20% OFF select contracts at thelegalpaige.com, use code LEGIT20 at checkout:

TLP Shop: RAW File Purchase Agreement Bundle
TLP Shop: Second Shooter Contract
TLP Shop: Associate Photographer Contracts

Links and Resources:

Need 1:1 legal support for your business? https://griffithsuazolaw.com/

Join the TLP Facebook Community, a safe space to ask any questions related to the law or your business: https://tlpfacebook.com/

Visit The Legal Paige for contract templates, blogs, and additional legal resources: https://thelegalpaige.com/

Follow me on Instagram: instragram.com/thelegalpaige

AI is everywhere—whether you’re using it to streamline workflows, generate content, or enhance images, it’s likely already a part of your business. But did you know how you use AI can impact copyright law and even put you at legal risk if you’re not disclosing it correctly?

In this episode, I’m diving into why AI disclosures are becoming essential for business owners and what the US Copyright Office is saying about AI-generated content. From a real-life case of a photographer’s AI-edited image getting rejected for copyright registration to the ethical and legal risks of AI in contracts, I’m covering everything you need to know to stay legally legit in the AI era.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

Why AI-generated content may not be copyrightable (and what that means for you).
How the US Copyright Office is handling AI disclosures in copyright registrations.
The legal and ethical risks of using AI for contracts, marketing, and content creation.
Where and how to disclose AI use in your business (client contracts, website policies, and more).
Why failing to disclose AI-generated work could land you in legal trouble.

Mentioned in This Episode:

Shop contracts, clauses and more at thelegalpaige.com:

TLP Shop: AI Disclaimer Clause for Photographers and Videographers
TLP Shop: AI Disclaimer Clause for Website Terms & Conditions
TLP Shop: AI Disclaimer Clause for Service Providers
TLP Shop: Website Terms & Conditions + Privacy Policy Template

Links and Resources:

Need 1:1 legal support for your business? https://griffithsuazolaw.com/

Join the TLP Facebook Community, a safe space to ask any questions related to the law or your business: https://tlpfacebook.com/

Visit The Legal Paige for contract templates, blogs, and additional legal resources: https://thelegalpaige.com/

Follow me on Instagram: instragram.com/thelegalpaige

Imagine scrolling the web and suddenly finding your own photo or content for sale on a major stock image site—without your permission. That’s exactly what happened to one of our listeners, and let me tell you, it’s more common than you think.

In this episode, I’m breaking down everything you need to know about DMCA takedowns—your secret weapon for getting stolen content removed from the internet. Whether you’re a photographer, content creator, or business owner, you need to know how to fight back when someone takes your work without permission.

If you’ve ever had your content stolen, you’re not powerless. Use the legal tools at your disposal and take back control of your work.

Stay legally legit, and I’ll see you next week for another important legal deep dive!

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

What the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) is and how it protects your content.
When and why you should file a DMCA takedown request.
The exact steps to find and report stolen content on major platforms.
What to do if someone files a counter notice against your takedown request.
How to proactively protect your work and stop content theft before it happens.

Mentioned in This Episode:

Download our Free DMCA Takedown Guide: https://thelegalpaige.com/dmca

Shop contracts, clauses and more at thelegalpaige.com:

TLP Shop: Website Terms & Conditions + Privacy Policy Template

Links and Resources:

Need 1:1 legal support for your business? https://griffithsuazolaw.com/

Join the TLP Facebook Community, a safe space to ask any questions related to the law or your business: https://tlpfacebook.com/

Visit The Legal Paige for contract templates, blogs, and additional legal resources: https://thelegalpaige.com/

Follow me on Instagram: instragram.com/thelegalpaige

In this episode of the Legally Legit Podcast, we’re diving into a topic that so many business owners struggle with—letting go of team members who are wonderful people but just aren’t the right fit for your business.

I’m getting real about my own experiences with hiring and firing, the mistakes I made by holding onto people for too long, and how that impacted my business growth. If you’ve ever felt guilty about letting someone go or questioned whether you’re making the right decision, this episode is for you.

I’ll walk you through the mindset shifts you need to make, the legal steps to take when offboarding a contractor or employee, and how to build a team that actually moves your business forward.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

Why keeping the wrong team members can slow your business down (even if they’re amazing people).
How to recognize when it’s time to let someone go and do it the right way.
The impact of holding onto underperforming team members on your leadership and company culture.
The legal must-haves when terminating employees or contractors (contracts matter!).
How to build a high-performing team that aligns with your business’s long-term goals.

Mentioned in This Episode:

Shop contracts, clauses and more at thelegalpaige.com:

TLP Shop: Independent Contractor Agreement Template
TLP Shop: Employment Handbook Template

Links and Resources:

Join the TLP Facebook Community, a safe space to ask any questions related to the law or your business: https://tlpfacebook.com/

Visit The Legal Paige for contract templates, blogs, and additional legal resources: https://thelegalpaige.com/

Follow me on Instagram: instragram.com/thelegalpaige

Need 1:1 legal support for your business? https://griffithsuazolaw.com/

In this episode of the Legally Legit Podcast, we’re diving into every business owner's worst nightmare; harassment, fraudulent reviews, and the fight to protect your reputation online.

I’m joined by Stephanie Robinson, a Denver-based micro-wedding and elopement photographer, who shares her shocking experience with online harassment. What started as an innocent dining review quickly spiraled into a campaign of fake reviews, online attacks, and legal battles that no business owner should ever have to face. Stephanie walks us through every step she took, from police reports to protection orders to tackling fraudulent Google reviews, and what you can do if you ever find yourself in a similar situation.

This is a must-listen if you want to be prepared for the realities of running an online business in today’s digital world.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

The legal steps Stephanie took to fight the online attack, including filing for a protection order and working with law enforcement.
The frustrating reality of getting fake Google reviews removed (and why it’s so hard!).
What reputation management firms can do and what to watch out for when hiring one.
The best strategies for protecting your business from online defamation and harassment.

Mentioned in This Episode:

Download our FREE How to Legally Protect Your Business from Social Media Attacks and Bad Reviews Guide: https://thelegalpaige.com/social/

Links and Resources:

Join the TLP Facebook Community, a safe space to ask any questions related to the law or your business: https://tlpfacebook.com/

Visit The Legal Paige for contract templates, blogs, and additional legal resources: https://thelegalpaige.com/

Follow me on Instagram: instragram.com/thelegalpaige

Need 1:1 legal support for your business? https://griffithsuazolaw.com/

Welcome to the official first episode of The Legally Legit Podcast! Yes, you read that right—we have a brand-new name, and let me tell you, the story behind it is WILD ONE.

To kick off Season 7 of the show, I’m taking you behind the scenes of a trademark battle that nearly forced me to rebrand everything I’ve built from the ground up. It was an 18-month legal rollercoaster that could have cost over $50,000 in legal fees—all because I made one crucial mistake when it came to trademarking my brand.

I’m breaking down exactly what happened, what I did right, what I did very wrong, and the big takeaways you NEED to know so you don’t end up in the same mess. If you’ve ever wondered when (or if) you should trademark your business name, tagline, or program name—this is your wake-up call!

Don’t wait until it’s too late. Take action now to secure your business name, tagline, and everything you’ve worked hard to build.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

How a simple tagline turned into a full-blown legal battle.
The exact steps to take before using a brand name, slogan, or tagline.
Why trademarking isn’t just for big businesses—it’s crucial for entrepreneurs, too.
What happens when someone else files for a trademark before you do.
The real costs of fighting a trademark opposition (and how to avoid them).
My #1 piece of advice to legally protect your brand from day one.

Mentioned in This Episode:

Download our FREE Trademark & Brand Protection Guide: https://thelegalpaige.com/trademark/

Looking for 1:1 legal support for your business? https://griffithsuazolaw.com/

Links and Resources:

Join the TLP Facebook Community, a safe space to ask any questions related to the law or your business: https://tlpfacebook.com/

Visit The Legal Paige for contract templates, blogs, and additional legal resources: https://thelegalpaige.com/

Follow me on Instagram: instragram.com/thelegalpaige

On this week’s episode of the Legally Legit Podcast (formerly The Legal Paige Podcast), I’m wrapping up Season 6 with an important conversation every photographer and wedding vendor needs to hear. If you’ve ever had a venue or vendor ask for your photos — or worse, take and use them without your permission — this episode is for you!

I’m sharing a replay of a recent training I hosted for photographers about handling venue photo requests like a pro. We’re talking copyright rights, private property claims, and how to protect your intellectual property without burning bridges. Whether you’re a photographer, planner, florist, or venue owner, understanding these legal issues is crucial for keeping your business legally legit.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

What your copyright rights are as a photographer (and how they are automatically protected).
The difference between working with a venue versus giving away your photos.
Why venues claiming rights to your photos because they were taken on private property is legally tricky.
How to communicate professionally and legally with venues and vendors who request images.
When to use licensing agreements, how to set boundaries, and whether you should charge a fee.

Mentioned in This Episode:

Shop contracts, clauses and more at thelegalpaige.com:

TLP Shop: Cease & Desist Letters
TLP Shop: Exclusive Licensing Agreement
TLP Shop: Non-Exclusive Licensing Agreement
TLP Shop: Website Terms & Conditions

Links and Resources:

Join the TLP Facebook Community, a safe space to ask any questions related to the law or your business: https://tlpfacebook.com/

Visit The Legal Paige for contract templates, blogs, and additional legal resources: https://thelegalpaige.com/

Follow me on Instagram: instragram.com/thelegalpaige

Need 1:1 legal support for your business? https://griffithsuazolaw.com/

This week on the Legally Legit® Podcast (formerly The Legal Paige® Podcast), I’m diving into one of the most requested topics and an absolute game-changer for small business owners: S-Corps! If you’re gearing up for tax season and wondering how to save thousands, you’ll want to tune into this episode.

I'll break down everything you need to know about S-Corporations, including what they are (hint: it’s a tax designation, not a business entity), how to elect S-Corp status, and why it might be the smartest move for your business. Plus, I’ll walk you through important considerations like reasonable salaries, tax savings on self-employment taxes, and how to know if an S-Corp is the right fit for you. Whether you’re a seasoned entrepreneur or just starting out, I share practical tips and advice to help you stay legally legit and maximize your tax savings.

*NOTE: This is a re-air of Episode 77: Understanding The Benefits Of S Corps and Taxes

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

What an S-Corporation is and how it differs from other business structures.
The steps to elect S-Corp status, including filing Form 2553 by March 15th.
How an S-Corp can save you thousands on self-employment taxes.
The importance of paying yourself a reasonable salary (and what that means).
Key factors to consider when deciding if an S-Corp is right for your business.

Mentioned in This Episode:

IRS Form 2553: Electing S-Corp Status
Legal and Tax Resources for Small Business Owners

Links and Resources:

TLP Bookkeeper Referral List
What the Heck is an S-Corporation?
DIY LLC Registration Guides
Single & Multi-Member Operation Agreements

Join the TLP Facebook Community, a safe space to ask any questions related to the law or your business: https://tlpfacebook.com/

Visit The Legal Paige for contract templates, blogs, and additional legal resources, and follow me on Instagram: https://thelegalpaige.com/

Need 1:1 legal support for your business? https://griffithsuazolaw.com/

On this week's episode of The Legal Paige Podcast I’m switching things up and giving you a behind-the-scenes look at what it’s really like to run a successful business while raising little ones. This episode is extra special because I’m joined by the amazing Macy Pruett—wife, mom of two boys, and founder of the Fittest Core app. Trust me, you’re going to love her.

Macy shares her story of building her business from the ground up, why she decided to bring her husband on board, and how they make it all work. We discuss the ups and downs of balancing motherhood, entrepreneurship, and relationships and swap tips for staying healthy and sane while juggling everything life and business throws at you. Whether you’re a mom, a business owner, or both, this episode is full of laughs, real talk, and encouragement to keep going—even on the tough days.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

How to balance the demands of motherhood and entrepreneurship.
Macy’s tips for finding time for self-care as a busy mom when life feels nonstop.
What it’s really like to work with your spouse and how to make it work for your family.
Why it’s important to embrace the busy, messy seasons of life without guilt.
Encouragement for staying true to yourself as a mom and entrepreneur.

Connect with Macy:

Instagram: @FittestCore
Fittest Core App: Learn more and access the 7-day free trial here

Links and Resources:

Visit The Legal Paige for contract templates, blogs, and additional legal resources, and follow me on Instagram: https://thelegalpaige.com/

Need 1:1 legal support for your business? https://griffithsuazolaw.com/

Join the TLP Facebook Community, a safe space to ask any questions related to the law or your business: https://tlpfacebook.com/

As an entrepreneur, knowing how to legally pay yourself is one of the most important parts of running a successful business. In this episode, I’m breaking down everything you need to know about paying yourself, whether you operate as a sole proprietorship, LLC, or S-Corp.

You’ll learn WHY separating your business and personal finances is non-negotiable, HOW to handle client payments correctly, and the key steps to avoiding common legal pitfalls when paying yourself as a business owner. It’s packed with actionable advice to help you confidently navigate the process.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

How to legally pay yourself as a sole proprietor, LLC owner, or S-Corp owner.
The differences between an owner’s draw and payroll and when to use each.
Why separating your business and personal finances is critical for legal compliance.
How to properly handle client payments to avoid financial and legal trouble.
Tax implications of paying yourself and what to prepare for as your business grows.

*NOTE: This is a re-air of Episode 159: Here's How To LEGALLY Pay Yourself As an Entrepreneur

Links and Resources:

Visit The Legal Paige for contract templates, blogs, and additional legal resources, and follow me on Instagram: https://thelegalpaige.com/

Need 1:1 legal support for your business? https://griffithsuazolaw.com/

Join the TLP Facebook Community, a safe space to ask any questions related to the law or your business: https://tlpfacebook.com/

If you work with independent contractors, this episode is a must-listen. With 1099 forms due on January 31st, it’s crucial to understand the differences between 1099-MISC, 1099-NEC, and 1099-K, so you can avoid any costly mistakes or trouble with the IRS.

I’m joined by Brittney Suttle, a CPA and founder of Knies & Co., a virtual CPA firm. Brittney breaks down everything you need to know about preparing and filing your 1099s, including who needs to receive one, how the updated tax laws affect you, and what to do if there are mistakes.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

How to properly prepare your 1099 forms before the January 31st deadline.
The differences between 1099-MISC, 1099-NEC, and 1099-K.
Who needs to receive a 1099, and who doesn’t.
The $600 threshold for 1099-NECs
IRS updates on 1099-K thresholds and how it applies to third-party payment processors like PayPal, Square, Venmo, and Cash App.
What to do if a 1099 form is sent or received incorrectly.

*NOTE: This is a re-air of Episode 118: What’s The Difference Between 1099-MISC, 1099-K, and 1099-NEC Forms?

Mentioned in this Episode:

IRS Delays $600 Threshold for 1099-K Tax Form
IRS Updated Guidelines for 1099 K-Forms In November 2024
Knies & Co. Website: kniesandco.com

Links and Resources:Read this Blog on 1099-K Forms and 1099-NEC Forms Creating Confusion for Taxes.

Access our Free Bookkeeper List Here: https://thelegalpaige.com/pages/bookkeeping

Visit The Legal Paige for contract templates, blogs, and additional legal resources, and follow me on Instagram: https://thelegalpaige.com/

Need 1:1 legal support for your business? https://griffithsuazolaw.com/

Join the TLP Facebook Community, a safe space to ask any questions related to the law or your business: https://tlpfacebook.com/

As 2024 comes to a close, I'm taking a moment to reflect on this incredible, exhausting and transformative year. In this episode, I’m sharing the highs and lows of the year as I wrap up Season 6 of The Legal Paige podcast. From big business wins to some personal challenges, I’ll be talking about everything that shaped this year—what worked, what didn’t and the valuable lessons I’ve learned along the way.

2024 has been a year of growth, expansion and learning for both me and our team at The Legal Paige. I kicked off the year on maternity leave with my second child, then dove headfirst into leading multiple businesses through significant milestones. But it wasn’t all smooth sailing—there were definitely moments of burnout, tough decisions and moments when I felt stretched thin balancing family and business. Even so, I’m incredibly grateful for everything this year has taught me, and I’m excited to share a glimpse of what’s to come in 2025.

Here’s what's inside:

Big Wins and Transformative Growth: From key hires like my operations manager and marketing director to our expansion through affiliate marketing, sponsorships, and strategic partnerships that helped propel our business forward in 2024.
Personal Milestones: A deep dive into my health journey and the renovation of our new forever home, along with the importance of carving out quality time for my family and loved ones despite the chaos of running multiple businesses.
Unexpected Challenges: The realities of managing burnout while trying to balance business growth and parenting two young children, plus the stresses that came with moving houses and maintaining a sense of stability.
2025 Predictions: My thoughts on the shifts in legal trends, marketing strategies, and the role of AI in small businesses, along with how identity marketing will change the way we connect with and serve our customers.

Mentioned in this Episode:

Suneera Madhani - https://suneeramadhani.com/

Jasmine Star - https://jasminestar.com/

Sarah from Digital Grace Design - https://digitalgracedesign.com/

Cember Studio - https://cemberstudio.com/

Veronica Romney - https://veronicaromney.com/

Links and Resources:

Become an Affiliate of The Legal Paige: https://thelegalpaige.com/pages/affiliate-program

Join the TLP Facebook Community, a safe space to ask any questions related to the law or your business: https://tlpfacebook.com/

Visit The Legal Paige for contract templates, blogs, and additional legal resources, and follow me on Instagram: https://thelegalpaige.com/

Need 1:1 legal support for your business? https://griffithsuazolaw.com/

Are your contracts strong enough to handle unexpected legal challenges in today’s fast-paced creative industry? In this episode, I'm sharing a conversation I had recently with wedding photographer and educator Laurken Kendall. We dive into the pressing legal issues faced by creative entrepreneurs, particularly photographers and wedding vendors.

From managing chargebacks and protecting intellectual property to navigating tricky vendor relationships, this episode is packed with actionable advice to help you keep your business legally secure. Whether you're a seasoned creative or just starting out, this episode will equip you with tools to confidently handle some of the most challenging aspects of running a creative business.

Tune in to learn:

How to document your processes, use airtight contracts, and fight back when clients dispute charges—even months after the event.
The key clauses every creative business owner should include in contracts, such as artistic style, editing, privacy of images, and non-exclusive vendor licensing agreements.
How to set boundaries and formalize relationships with vendors to prevent misuse of your work and avoid giving away your power.
Ways to navigate client privacy concerns with flexibility while maintaining a legally sound approach.
Why cancellation, rescheduling, and contract amendments should always be documented with signed agreements to protect your business from legal disputes.

Connect with Laurken:
Website: https://laurkenkendall.com/
IG: https://www.instagram.com/laurkenkendall/

Links and Resources:

Join the TLP Facebook Community, a safe space to ask any questions related to the law or your business: http://tlpfacebook.com/

Visit The Legal Paige for contract templates, blogs, and additional legal resources, and follow me on Instagram.

Need 1:1 legal support for your business? https://griffithsuazolaw.com/

Have you filed your BOI report yet? Register for the upcoming webinar + learn how to avoid costly fees and penalties: https://thelegalpaige.com/boi

What happens when a client leaves you a bad review? Can you legally prevent them from saying something bad about your business?

In this episode, I’m breaking down everything you need to know about handling client reviews and why non-disparagement clauses shouldn’t be in your client contracts. I’ll walk you through the legal side of things, especially the Consumer Review Fairness Act (CRFA), and share practical tips for dealing with bad reviews. We’ll also talk about why confidentiality clauses in cancellation agreements are a much better option, and how you can respond professionally to negative feedback while keeping your business’ reputation intact.

Bad reviews are bound to happen, so tune in to hear how you can protect your business:

Your contracts should focus on setting clear expectations, not controlling client feedback.
Client reviews, whether good or bad, are opportunities to demonstrate professionalism through your response.
While you can’t stop negative reviews, you can protect sensitive business details with the right contract clauses.
Learning to navigate customer reviews can enhance your brand’s credibility and trustworthiness.
Taking legal action over false reviews is an option, but it’s important to weigh the risks and challenges.

Links and Resources:

Join the TLP Facebook Community, a safe space to ask any questions related to the law or your business: http://tlpfacebook.com/

Visit The Legal Paige for contract templates, blogs, and additional legal resources, and follow me on Instagram.

Need 1:1 legal support for your business? https://griffithsuazolaw.com/

Could a simple pop-up on your website be the secret to boosting engagement and generating more leads for your business?

In this episode, I’m sitting down with serial entrepreneur and marketing expert Davey Jones to dive into the ever-evolving world of email marketing. We cover the latest trends for email collection in 2024 and beyond, including how to strategically use pop-ups, lead magnets, and webinars to grow your list. Davey also shares his experience with rebranding BDOW!, a tool designed to improve website lead generation and user experience. Of course, we also touch on the legal side of things, including why trademarking is crucial for protecting your brand.

Tune in to learn how you can level up your email marketing strategy and protect your brand with these episode highlights:

Email marketing is still one of the most reliable channels for conversions and business growth.
Your lead magnets should provide immediate, actionable value, which is something your audience can use right away.
Pop-ups are an essential tool for email collection, but they need to be strategically placed on high-traffic pages.
Don’t forget about legal compliance! Make sure your email collection efforts follow privacy policy and GDPR rules.
Trademarking your brand name early on will protect your business and add long-term value.

Get 20% off your first month with BDOW! using code LEGALPAIGE

Connect with Davey:https://daveytjones.com/

Links and Resources:

Join the TLP Facebook Community, a safe space to ask any questions related to the law or your business: http://tlpfacebook.com/

Visit The Legal Paige for contract templates, blogs, and additional legal resources, and follow me on Instagram.

Need 1:1 legal support for your business? https://griffithsuazolaw.com/

Is your LLC truly protected, or are you unknowingly putting your personal assets at risk?

In this episode, I’m diving into the details of LLC operating agreements and why they’re so important for business owners like you. I’ll walk you through what an operating agreement is, how it protects your business from personal liability, and why it’s a must-have, whether you’re a solo entrepreneur or in a partnership. Don’t make the mistake of skipping this document. Trust me, it could save you from a lot of chaos down the road!

Tune into this episode to hear these critical takeaways about LLCs:

LLC operating agreements lay out the ownership, management, and operations of your business, and are important, even if you’re the only member.
Without an operating agreement, your LLC could be seen as a sole proprietorship, which puts personal assets on the line.
If you’re in a multi-member LLC, operating agreements help prevent disputes by clearly defining everyone’s roles.
You can customize and amend your operating agreements as your business grows, keeping things flexible while still providing structure.
Just filing your LLC with the state isn’t enough…an operating agreement protects your members from personal liability.

Links and Resources:Grab the Single Member LLC Operating Agreement Template

Grab the Multi-Member LLC Operating Agreement Template

Join the TLP Facebook Community, a safe space to ask any questions related to the law or your business: http://tlpfacebook.com/

Visit The Legal Paige for contract templates, blogs, and additional legal resources, and follow me on Instagram.

What does it take to build a photography business that thrives while staying legally protected?

In this episode of The Legal Paige Podcast, I’m chatting with Hope Taylor, a senior photographer and educator, about her journey from starting a photography business as a teenager to becoming a successful educator in the industry. We’re exploring crucial legal aspects for photographers, the value of contracts, and the power of spokesmodel programs to grow your business. This episode is packed with advice on navigating the business side of photography, including tips on managing client relationships, setting professional boundaries, and ensuring you’re legally covered in every session.

Whether you’re a new photographer or a seasoned pro, here are the unmissable highlights:

The importance of starting your photography business with a solid contract to protect both you and your clients
How spokesmodel programs can significantly boost your business by turning high school seniors into brand ambassadors
Why building clear communication boundaries with clients is vital for maintaining professionalism
Why setting clear guidelines for payments, late arrivals, and gallery delivery times helps set expectations and avoid misunderstandings
How having both the parent and senior sign contracts to ensure legal clarity, especially when working with minors

**Links and Resources:

Check out Hope's Favorite TLP resources and use her promo code HOPE45 for 45% off site wide during her TLP sale! (9/23-9/27).**

Join the TLP Facebook Community, a safe space to ask any questions related to the law or your business: http://tlpfacebook.com/

Visit The Legal Paige for contract templates, blogs, and additional legal resources, and follow me on Instagram

Tune in to this episode of The Legal Paige Podcast for a rapid-fire Q&A session, answering your legal questions, sourced directly from The Legal Paige community on Facebook. Whether you’re dealing with contract issues, clickwrap agreements, payment disputes, or legal privacy concerns, this episode provides the quick, practical advice you need as an entrepreneur and business owner. I’m covering everything from combining service contracts to managing redlined clauses, giving you the confidence to handle legal challenges in your business.

Tune in to hear my answers to these legal questions from the community:

Are clickwrap agreements valid, and how can you ensure the terms are properly documented?
How you can merge different service contracts while ensuring all critical clauses are included
Why it’s important to use clients’ full legal names on contracts, and what risks can happen if you don’t
Whether you should enforce late fees in your contracts, and how you can motivate clients to pay on time
What to do when clients request to change contract terms without compromising your business politics

Links and Resources:

Join the TLP Facebook Community, a safe space to ask any questions related to the law or your business: http://tlpfacebook.com/

Visit The Legal Paige for contract templates, blogs, and additional legal resources, and follow me on Instagram.

What if a simple click on a streaming service could determine how a wrongful death claim is handled?

This is the exact legal nightmare that one Disney fan is experiencing right now. In this episode, I’m discussing the complex world of arbitration and mediation, inspired by a recent high-profile Disney lawsuit. I’m breaking down the nuances of these alternative dispute resolution methods, and whether they’re beneficial or harmful when included in contracts.

The episode highlights include:

How arbitration and mediation are alternative dispute resolution methods that can help avoid costly and lengthy court trials.
Arbitration results in a binding legal decision, while mediation is a non-binding agreement between parties.
How including an arbitration clause in your contract can provide a faster, more confidential resolution to disputes.
Why mediation may be more suitable for preserving professional relationships, but lacks the finality of arbitration.
The importance of having a clear dispute resolution clause in your contracts to protect your business.

Links and Resources:

Griffith Law Contact Information

Join the TLP Facebook Community, a safe space to ask any questions related to the law or your business.: http://tlpfacebook.com/

Visit The Legal Paige for contract templates, blogs, and additional legal resources, and follow me on Instagram.

Wondering how you can protect your intellectual property in a way that’s very demure, very mindful?

In this episode of The Legal Paige, I’m diving into a current legal hot topic: Jools Lebron, “very demure, very mindful”, and the importance of protecting your intellectual property, especially when it comes to viral social media trends. I’m discussing what happened when Jools didn’t secure a trademark immediately, how it’s led to legal challenges, and what this means for content creators and small business owners. Whether you’re a content creator, entrepreneur, or just want the legal tea regarding the latest TikTok drama, this episode offers essential insights into how to safeguard your work and navigate the complexities of trademark law.

The episode’s very mindful, very cutesy highlights include:

The importance of timely trademark filing, and why you need to trademark as soon as your phrase, brand, or concept gains traction.
What trademark squatting is, the legal consequences, and the legal recourse available for the original creators.
Why you need a specialized intellectual property attorney to navigate the trademark process.
What’s the difference between first to use and first to file, and how you can avoid lengthy legal battles.
Securing trademarks is also about increasing your brand’s value and ensuring a competitive edge in the marketplace.

Links and Resources:

Legally Protecting Your Brand and Trademarking Guide
Griffith Law Contact Information
USPTO Trademark Search

Join the TLP Facebook Community, a safe space to ask any questions related to the law or your business.: http://tlpfacebook.com/

Visit The Legal Paige for contract templates, blogs, and additional legal resources, and follow me on Instagram.

In this episode of The Legal Paige, I’m sharing how you can craft effective and legally sound email templates for handling various client scenarios. I’m covering all the essential strategies you need for managing difficult client communications, from declining a client before they’re officially booked to addressing contract amendments and cancellations. Whether you’re dealing with red-flag clients or need to modify existing agreements, this episode is packed with practical advice to ensure your business communications are professional, empathetic, and legally backed.

Key takeaways in this episode include:

The importance of email templates in ensuring clear, professional communication for inquiries, bookings, follow-ups, and contract-related issues.
My template for declining a client before they’re officially booked, which emphasizes professionalism and providing referrals.
The difference between amendments and addendums, and how to communicate changes effectively, ensuring clients feel heard.
My template for addressing cancellations and suggesting rescheduling options with empathy while still upholding contract terms.
Why you need to customize email templates to reflect your brand tone and style to maintain a consistent client experience.

Links and Resources:

The Legal Paige Free Email Templates

Little Black Book of Handling Difficult Client Situations

Join the TLP Facebook Community, a safe space to ask any questions related to the law or your business.: http://tlpfacebook.com/

Visit The Legal Paige for contract templates, blogs, and additional legal resources, and follow me on Instagram.

Have you ever wondered how Taylor Swift manages to protect her brand and creativity so effectively?

In this episode of The Legal Paige, I’m breaking down the intricate world of trademarking, using Taylor Swift as the ultimate case study for trademark success. You’ll hear why trademark protection is vital for artists and business owners alike, and learn how Taylor Swift is a masterclass in managing intellectual property to safeguard her brand. I’m also providing practical advice on how you can implement similar strategies to protect your business and creativity.

If you want to manage your brand with Taylor Swift levels of mastery, tune in to hear these unmissable highlights:

Taylor Swift’s trademark strategy and how it helps her maintain a strong brand presence.
The significance of filing trademarking applications early and considering future business expansions.
Practical advice on creating an IP holding company and filing intent-to-use applications.
The complexities of navigating the USPTO trademark registration process and the benefits of consulting with an IP lawyer.
The long-term benefits of trademark protection, including increased business value and licensing opportunities.

Links and Resources:

Legally Protecting Your Brand and Trademarking Guide
Griffith Law Contact Information
USPTO Trademark Search

Are you ready for an overall legal upgrade for your business? Don’t miss my free masterclass, How to Build a Legally Legit Business. This masterclass has the potential to save you loads of money, prevent tons of stressful client confrontations, and it will pave the way to a legally protected business.

Join the TLP Facebook Community, a safe space to ask any questions related to the law or your business.: http://tlpfacebook.com/

Visit The Legal Paige for contract templates, blogs, and additional legal resources, and follow me on Instagram.

What happens to your fees as a service provider if a hurricane, wildfire, or other natural disaster prevents you from fulfilling your contract as a business owner?

In this episode of The Legal Paige, I’m discussing the intricacies of force majeure clauses in contracts, which is especially important in light of increasing natural disasters like wildfires. I’m breaking down exactly what a force majeure clause is, how to implement it effectively, and why it’s a crucial clause for service providers to include in their contracts. Through real-world examples and practical advice, I’m making sure you are well-equipped to handle unexpected events that could impact your business operations.

Tune into this episode to hear:

What a force majeure clause is and how it protects service providers from liabilities due to uncontrollable events.
Common force majeure events, including both natural disasters and man-made events.
Notice requirements in force majeure clauses to ensure timely communication between parties.
What happens with service payments during a force majeure event.
Real-world examples that show the application and importance of having a force majeure clause in contracts.

Links and Resources:

The Legal Paige Force Majeure Clause (A la Carte)

Are you ready for an overall legal upgrade for your business? Don’t miss my free masterclass, How to Build a Legally Legit Business. This masterclass has the potential to save you loads of money, prevent tons of stressful client confrontations, and it will pave the way to a legally protected business.

Join the TLP Facebook Community, a safe space to ask any questions related to the law or your business.: http://tlpfacebook.com/

Visit The Legal Paige for contract templates, blogs, and additional legal resources, and follow me on Instagram.

Are you struggling to turn off work and focus on making core memories with your family this summer?

In this episode, I’m reflecting on the challenges of balancing work and personal life. Despite my intentions for a slower summer, the demands of running a business and being a mom have kept my schedule hectic and full. When you’re trying to balance your business and summer fun with your family, it’s important to set boundaries, make intentional choices, and find ways to turn off work to be more present in the moment.

Tune in to hear my insights and tips on achieving a better work-life balance as an entrepreneur and parent:

What it looked like to slow down amidst a busy schedule and the importance of actively turning off work to focus on your personal life and family.
My strategies for being present with my children while managing a growing business.
How hiring, onboarding, delegating tasks, and trusting my team have been crucial in managing my workload.
How I set boundaries with myself and my team members regarding communication.
The importance of taking time away from work for self-care and personal activities to recharge.

Are you ready for an overall legal upgrade for your business? Don’t miss my free masterclass, How to Build a Legally Legit Business. This masterclass has the potential to save you loads of money, prevent tons of stressful client confrontations, and it will pave the way to a legally protected business.

Join the TLP Facebook Community, a safe space to ask any questions related to the law or your business.: http://tlpfacebook.com/

Visit The Legal Paige for contract templates, blogs, and additional legal resources, and follow me on Instagram.

Are you ready for an overall legal upgrade for your business? Don’t miss my free masterclass, How to Build a Legally Legit Business. This masterclass has the potential to save you loads of money, prevent tons of stressful client confrontations, and it will pave the way to a legally protected business.

Have you ever wondered how to handle a client who wants out of a contract just before a big event? Or what to do when a client gets upset over communication issues or ghosts you?

In this episode, I’m addressing a critical issue that many service-based business owners face: the enforcement and implications of communication clauses in your contracts. Using a real-life scenario from the TLP community, I’m breaking down the legal intricacies of handling client communication expectations, especially when a client attempts to claim a breach of contract. I explain what constitutes a material breach and offer practical advice on how to craft and enforce communication clauses that protect both parties.

Whether you’re a wedding planner, photographer, or other service provider, you won’t want to miss these valuable insights:

The importance of communication clauses for response times and methods of communication, protecting both you and your client.
Material vs. non-material breaches of contract and how they affect contract cancellations.
Why you need to document communications and proof of notification for proper communication protocols.
How to include broad language in contract communication clauses to cover exceptions like holidays or vacations.
Implementing clear procedures for when a client ghosts you, including potential termination of their contract.

Does your current contract have your business protected and set up for success? Grab Your Contract Clause Checklist here or DM me the word 'Checklist' on Instagram and I will send it over.

Join the TLP Facebook Community, a safe space to ask any questions related to the law or your business.: http://tlpfacebook.com/

Visit The Legal Paige for contract templates, blogs, and additional legal resources, and follow me on Instagram.

Click here to sign up and join me for a free masterclass: Protecting Your Creative Rights Post-Sepia Gate happening 7/22

Want to learn how to create a rock-solid wedding photography contract that keeps your business safe?

Coming off the heels of Sepia Gate, I’m giving you a comprehensive guide to wedding photography contracts, specifically focusing on The Legal Paige® template contract. (Not sure what Sepia Gate is? Go back to the previous episode for all the details!).

In this episode, I’m breaking down the importance of having a robust photography contract, diving into each necessary clause, and providing helpful explanations based on my extensive experience in both the legal and wedding photography industries.

Whether you’re a wedding photographer, an elopement photographer, or any type of event photographer, you can’t miss these tips on keeping your contracts ironclad and up-to-date:

The importance of having a detailed and legally sound wedding photography contract, ensuring it protects you from client disputes and lays out clear expectations.
The critical clauses every wedding photography contract needs, and how to word them to avoid ambiguity.
Why having your contracts reviewed by an attorney is vital to ensure they comply with state laws and avoid potential issues.
Best practices for managing client interactions related to the contract, including explaining clauses, handling negotiations, and maintaining professionalism.
The advantage of using The Legal Paige contracts, including ongoing updates to reflect industry changes and client feedback.

Grab the Photographer Creative Rights Protection Clause Bundle here

Join the TLP Facebook Community, a safe space to ask any questions related to the law or your business.: http://tlpfacebook.com/

Visit The Legal Paige for contract templates, blogs, and additional legal resources, and follow me on Instagram.

Wondering why your tried-and-true marketing tactics aren’t working anymore?

In this episode of The Legal Paige Podcast, I’m joined by marketing expert (and good friend!) Veronica Romney. Veronica, known for her innovative marketing strategies, shares invaluable insights into navigating the ever-evolving landscape of online business. Veronica and I discuss the importance of adapting marketing strategies, the impact of COVID-19 on entrepreneurship, and how service providers (like you!) can stay competitive in today's market.

Tune in to hear:

Using benefit extensions to offer multiple value tiers from a single transaction and strengthen client relationships.
Marketing strategies that stopped being effective in 2023, and how businesses must continually innovate and update their messaging to remain relevant.
How the COVID-19 pandemic kickstarted a rise in entrepreneurship and brought about new challenges for online businesses.
The idea of proximity in marketing and how service providers can build closer relationships with clients.
The importance of collecting and using customer feedback to refine marketing strategies, along with specific techniques for accomplishing this.

Links and Resources:

Connect with Veronica on her website or on Instagram.

Are you ready to officially make your business legally legit? Get started the right way with my free 10 steps to set up a legal business checklist here.

Join the TLP Facebook Community, a safe space to ask any questions related to the law or your business.: http://tlpfacebook.com/

How can you handle a client who gets on social media and airs their grievances about your work?

This is the juicy episode of The Legal Paige that you’ve been waiting for! In this episode, I’m taking a deep dive into the viral TikTok controversy known as Sepia Gate, exploring the balance between customer service and the artistic integrity of wedding photographers. I weigh in with my own experience in the industry as a retired wedding photographer and discuss the legal implications of Sepia Gate, industry best practices, and a comprehensive analysis of the entire dramatic saga.

Get your popcorn ready, because you won’t want to miss these highlights:

The core issue at the heart of Sepia Gate and what this means for managing client expectations.
The necessity of having an artistic style clause in photography contracts.
How photographers can handle situations where clients go public with their dissatisfaction on social media.
Ways to educate clients, set clear expectations, and minimize the risk of conflicts.

Does your current contract have your business protected and set up for success? Grab Your Contract Clause Checklist here or DM me the word 'Checklist' on Instagram and I will send it over.

Join the TLP Facebook Community, a safe space to ask any questions related to the law or your business.: http://tlpfacebook.com/

Visit The Legal Paige for contract templates, blogs, and additional legal resources, and follow me on Instagram.

Ever wondered how can you master the art of networking to supercharge your business?

In this episode, we’re diving into the power of networking. With over a decade of entrepreneurship under my belt, I’m sharing my insights and experiences on how effective networking can catapult your business to the next level. From grassroots efforts like cold emails and organic online reach to the importance of being genuine and mutually beneficial in your connections, this episode is packed with practical advice you can implement right away.

Tune in to hear:

How one pivotal connection can skyrocket your business.
My own personal experiences with networking and how I use social media to my advantage.
Actionable strategies from cold emails to voice messages that you can start implementing today.
The importance of mutual benefits in any networking relationship, and how to start giving before you ask for anything in return.
How I achieved my networking wins through simple manifestation and connection efforts.

Are you ready to officially make your business legally legit? Get started the right way with my free 10 steps to set up a legal business checklist here.

Join the TLP Facebook Community, a safe space to ask any questions related to the law or your business.: http://tlpfacebook.com/

What does Adobe’s latest legal trouble mean for your content and your rights?

Today, I’m breaking down the recent developments with the FTC’s lawsuit over Adobe’s controversial subscription practices. We’ll also explore how Adobe’s vague terms and conditions have stirred concerns among creatives and consumers. I’ll unpack the lawsuit’s key points, its implications for us, and how Adobe has responded with updated terms.

Tune in to hear:

How Adobe’s subscription practices landed them in hot water with the FTC
Adobe’s June 18 updates to their terms and what it means for your business
What rights you retain over your content amid Adobe’s new policy changes
How Adobe’s AI tools could impact your work and how to navigate their usage
The broader implications of the FTC’s crackdown on misleading subscription services

Join the TLP Facebook Community, a safe space to ask any questions related to the law or your business.: http://tlpfacebook.com/

When your brand and creative freedom are on the line, how do you fight back? Hayley Paige’s story is a masterclass in resilience.

I am so excited to welcome Hayley to the podcast today as she reflects on her early career in the wedding fashion industry, the legal dispute over her trademark, and how she emerged stronger, reclaiming her identity and reviving her brand. You’ll also hear from Hayley on the importance of legal advocacy for creators and her future plans for fashion and brand innovation.

What you’ll hear:

Hayley’s early journey as a wedding dress designer
How the JLM lawsuit reshaped her career and her reflections on the settlement and reclaiming her name and intellectual property
Why having the right legal support is crucial and what Hayley wishes she knew earlier about contracts and trademarks
The broader impact of Hayley’s legal case on social media rights for creators and entrepreneurs
A Girl You Might Know- Hayley’s foundation to support creatives with legal advice and resources
Advice for navigating legal protection as a small business owner who is just getting started
Hayley’s vision for her brand, including new designs and how she plans to innovate moving forward

Grab the free trademark guide here: thelegalpaige.com/trademarkguide

Connect with Hayley:

@misshayleypaige & @allthatglittersonthegram
Learn more & support A Girl You Might Know foundation
She is Cheval

Need hands on legal support? Reach out to us at https://griffithlawpllc.com/

Join the TLP Facebook Community, a safe space to ask any questions related to the law or your business.: http://tlpfacebook.com/

Can a name trademark cost you your business? In just a few days, you’ll get to hear from Hayley Paige herself, but in the meantime I am catching you up on what happened in one of the most high-profile legal cases in the fashion industry.

We'll unpack key takeaways about owning your social media accounts, knowing your contracts, long-term business strategy, and protecting your intellectual property—all things that are crucial if you’re running a business.

You’ll hear:

The timeline of events between Hayley Paige and JLM Couture
A summary of the lawsuit and the final resolution
The lessons learned from this case and ways you can protect your own brand

Are you ready to officially make your business legally legit? Get started the right way with my free 10 steps to set up a legal business checklist here.

Welcome to The Legal Paige Podcast, Era 2.0!

After taking a little hiatus from the podcast (because it simply didn’t feel aligned) I’m back with a CLEAR vision on what I want for this podcast moving forward. The gist? While I love love love sharing legal content, I also want to share a bit more about my business mindset, CEO mindset, and business tips + tricks. A decade into this gig and I have some wisdom, failures, and successes that will be helpful for others to learn from!

In this episode, I give an unfiltered update on all the things happening in my life both personally + professionally. Press play and you’ll get a glimpse into:

How maternity leave really went
The lessons I learned from trying to execute 2 big launches in less than a month
The 6 new job titles I’m adding to my team
The area of my business I’m managing for the first time in years,
How I’m prioritizing health and friendships during a particularly busy season of life

If I can ask anything from you, it’d be to go give it a listen and write a review with your feedback. As I bring the podcast back to life, I’d love to know what resonated with you + what you’d like to learn about in the upcoming episodes.

We're diving into a topic that sometimes is a bit uncomfortable, but it's truly essential for your business's financial, legal, and customer health.

Specifically, how slow sales or taking sales back might be affecting your bottom line and what you can do about it legally. As business owners, we do often put our clients' needs before our own, sometimes to the detriment of our own financial well-being. But here is the hard truth... Your money is just as important as your clients' money, and it is not greedy to prioritize your own bottom line! Especially in challenging economic times like we have right now.

In episode 166 of The Legal Paige Podcast, I am tackling a question straight from The Legal Paige Facebook Community. We dive into the what you should know about cooling off periods, no downgrades language in your contract, and chargeback fraud!

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Tune into Episode 166, I will provide insight into this essential conversation, that may be uncomfortable but is nonetheless essential for every single business owner. Because over here at The Legal Paige I want to empower you both legally and within your business to operate as a smart, forward-thinking, and legal business owner! And if you want more helpful business advice as you’ll hear on the podcast, be sure to join The Legal Paige Facebook Community where thousands of entrepreneurs just like you are getting real-time answers about running a professionally and legally legit business.

As a forward-thinking entrepreneur, it's only natural to think about and somewhat start planning for the future of your business.

**We plan out where we see ourselves in 3, 5, and even 10 years from now. If we are thinking of starting a family, a major life event, or a move… We often start planning ahead so we can find the help we will need to keep our business running smoothly, what personal to-do’s we can assign to someone else, and more.

Now, as dark as this sounds, we also need to plan on if something unfortunate happens to us and we are not here to run our business. This is beyond the temporary situations of getting sick, a small injury, or personal emergency. I am talking about answering the question, “What happens to my business if I die?".**

In episode 165 of The Legal Paige Podcast, I share why it is so critical to plan on who inherits our business’s management, how our clients and current contracts will be handled, who has access to bank accounts and online platforms, and various ways to protect ourselves and our business from such an unimaginable (but definitely possible) situation.

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Tune into Episode 165, I will provide insight into this unimaginable topic, that may be uncomfortable but is nonetheless essential for every single business owner. Because over here at The Legal Paige I want to empower you both legally and within your business to operate as a smart, forward-thinking, and legal business owner! And if you want more helpful business advice as you’ll hear on the podcast, be sure to join The Legal Paige Facebook Communitywhere thousands of entrepreneurs just like you are getting real-time answers about running a professionally and legally legit business.

Today's episode is focused squarely on the world of wedding planners and vendors. Specifically why, in most cases, legally speaking planners might want to hit the brakes on signing those vendor contracts on behalf of their clients.

Yep, you guessed it—there are some serious legal angles to consider! Legal liability and risk management being the key one.

Ever had clients raising eyebrows over a certain clause? We've got you covered.
Curious about who should be adding their John Hancock to that model release? (Think here both parents in a family photo shoot or only one?!)

In episode 164 of The Legal Paige Podcast, we share why strongly advise against ever signing on your client's behalf. The lines of who the client is and who is liable to the vendors if the worst happens (think cancellation or rescheduling, or a natural disaster, or someone gets injured or hurt) becomes blurry. You do not want to be stuck in a situation where you are fighting with your clients AND event vendors on who is liable if/when the worst happens. In legal terms, this is called ‘joint and several liability’ and we are trying to help you avoid being on the hook for those sticky situations.

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Tune into Episode 164 for anepisode is focused squarely on the world planners and vendors. We'll be covering ins and outs of why you don't ever want to sign on behalf of your clients (or accept a planners signature in the case of vendors). And if you want more helpful business advice as you’ll hear on the podcast, be sure to join The Legal Paige Facebook Community where thousands of entrepreneurs just like you are getting real-time answers about running a professionally and legally legit business.

Today's episode is focused squarely on the world of photography, specifically the often-underestimated yet incredibly crucial model release clauses woven into those photography agreements with clients.

It’s impossible to take on every project + task while also trying to do what we love, have a life, and be the visionary/CEO. Over the years, The Legal Paige has brought on over 30+ contractors that have been life-changing for our business, terrible, and everything in between.

Ever had clients raising eyebrows over a certain clause? We've got you covered.
Curious about who should be adding their John Hancock to that model release? (Think here both parents in a family photo shoot or only one?!)

What happens when someone who didn't sign the release pops up in the photos? Hold tight, because that's on the menu too.

In Episode 163 of The Legal Paige Podcast, we are diving into model releases and what you need to know, who should sign them, and privacy concerns.

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Tune into Episode 163 for anepisode is focused squarely on the world of photography. We'll be covering ins and outs of model releases — everything from who signs them to those privacy concerns that can pop up during client conversations. If you want more helpful business advice as you’ll hear on the podcast, be sure to join The Legal Paige Facebook Community where thousands of entrepreneurs just like you are getting real-time answers about running a professionally and legally legit business.

One of the smartest things we can do to grow our businesses is HIRE.

It’s impossible to take on every project + task while also trying to do what we love, have a life, and be the visionary/CEO. Over the years, The Legal Paige has brought on over 30+ contractors that have been life-changing for our business, terrible, and everything in between.

But what happens if you hire someone as a contractor and things go majorly wrong?

How can you stay legal and protect your business? What steps can you take to prevent something going even more wrong once the cookie starts to crumble.

In Episode 162 of The Legal Paige Podcast, I am sharing how you can protect your business assets and what happens if a relationship with a service provider goes wrong.

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Tune into Episode 162 for a service-provider horror story that changed how I do business, ideas on how you can legally protect your business before sticky situations happen, what to do if your service-provider deletes everything, and more! If you want more helpful business advice as you’ll hear on the podcast, be sure to join The Legal Paige Facebook Community where thousands of entrepreneurs just like you are getting real-time answers about running a professionally and legally legit business.

Attention, Photographers, Planners, Videographers, DJs, Florists, and all service providers collaborating with couples and their families for weddings and events… This episode of The Legal Paige Podcast is tailor-made for you.

Recently, within The Legal Paige Facebook Community, a member encountered a rather tricky scenario. Parents of the couple opted to cover the costs for the services provided.

Our community member, keen on staying legally sound, went the extra mile by furnishing the parents with a third-party payor addendum sourced from our shop.

But here's the twist—the parent in question wasn't too thrilled, said some unkind words, and declined to put pen to paper. Now, legally speaking, this raises a major red flag.

Now, what's the best course of action for this service provider? Is it a matter of discontinuing their relationship with the clients? Should they proceed with the third-party payment sans the signed agreement?

In Episode 161 of The Legal Paige Podcast, we delve into this complex scenario, exploring how to navigate these challenging waters. And fear not, because I'll be offering my expert guidance as your friendly online attorney!

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Tune into Episode 161 for a service-provider horror story that proves just how important it is to have a third party payor addendum, and how to navigate a sticky situation when the third party declined to put pen to paper! If you want more helpful business advice as you’ll hear on the podcast, be sure to join The Legal Paige Facebook Community where thousands of entrepreneurs just like you are getting real-time answers about running a professionally and legally legit business.

Are you a thrifter or DIYer who uses online marketplaces to buy and sell items?

As your friendly online attorney, I want you to be legally savvy in all areas of your life (even outside of clients and contracts). So what do you need to know about buying and selling on online marketplaces?

Well, the sticky situations are truly endless:

What if you get a like-new air purifier from the neighbor down the street… only to find out it doesn't work when you get home?

Or what if you sold someone a used microwave and they messaged you after they picked it up saying the turntable doesn’t move correctly and now they want to bring it back for a refund??

In Episode 160 of The Legal Paige Podcast, I’m sharing my legal marketplace how-to’s, experiences, and the legal doctrine “Buyer Beware”!

BUYER BEWARE

I am sure you have heard of the phrase ‘Buyer Beware’ but may not know the legal implications or definition. ‘Buyer Beware’ is a legal concept that comes from the Latin phrase Caveat emptor, quia ignorare non-debuit quod jus alienum emit which translates to “Let a purchaser beware, for he ought not to be ignorant of the nature of the property which he is buying from another party.”

‘Buyer Beware’ in basic terms is the duty of a buyer to inspect, test, and agree to an item before buying it. More specifically if an item does not come brand new from a certified merchant a buyer understands and acknowledges that the item is sold as-is.

As a buyer, make sure you fully inspect any item you buy and understand that once you put it in your car and drive away… that’s it and you own it no matter if it works for another year or not. Buyers should never put money down on the table before seeing and testing the item. This not only helps prevent you from receiving faulty items but also protects you from potential fraud. If you are a buyer purchasing used items you must know you are taking on a risk when you buy used items…so BEWARE of what you buy.

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Tune into Episode 160 and learn more about how to navigate the world of Facebook marketplace from a legal perspective! If you want more helpful advice as you’ll hear on the podcast, be sure to join The Legal Paige Facebook Community where thousands of entrepreneurs just like you are getting real-time answers about running a professionally and legally legit business.

Entrepreneurship isn’t all about the money–but it sure is a good feeling to see that paycheck come in. So how do you make sure that 1. You actually get paid and 2. You pay yourself, legally?

Part of the reason why you start a business is to make money for yourself and to do that you have to know how to pay yourself. In Episode 159 of The Legal Paige Podcast we are going to take you back to the basics and talk about how to pay yourself legally to keep your business structure (and the advantages it provides) in tact, how to legally accept payments from clients, and what to do when clients want to send a payment to you personally versus your business. There are real sticky situations that you are going to experience at some point. And having the knowledge to handle these situations and the protection in place is only going to help you and your business.

Step One: Have A Business Bank Account

The first step to legally paying yourself as a business owner is to keep all of your business money in a Business Account. Even though certain business organizations do not require you to keep your business profits separate from your personal finances, you should still keep business profits and expenses separate! Keeping your business finances apart from your personal account will make it easier to do the accounting work for your business and file taxes at the end of the year. Additionally, it will be easier for you to pay yourself a consistent salary if your accounts are separate.

More From This Episode:

Press play on Episode 159 and learn more about transferring money, the differences in how you should pay yourself based on your business structure, how clients should pay you, and more! If you want more helpful business advice as you’ll hear on the podcast, be sure to join The Legal Paige Facebook Community where thousands of entrepreneurs just like you are getting real-time answers about running a professionally and legally legit business.

Cancellations with clients can feel like the worst thing in the world, it’s something that can keep business owners up at night running through all the what-if scenarios…

Especially, if it’s you canceling the contract with them. And that could be for a number of reasons; like a family emergency, or the client has been a nightmare to work with and you are ready to set boundaries, or they have deliberately breached your contract. Obviously this issue is a touchy subject because no one ever intends to enter into a contract to terminate it before all parties have completed their performance. Also, sometimes canceling can lead to bad tastes in clients' mouths, yucky feelings all around, and bad reviews (which is the worst case scenario).

So let’s look at how to cancel on your clients legally and make sure you are protected as the business owner at the end of the day.

HOW TO APPROACH A CANCELLATION

Cancellations can be tricky and if you are the one who is canceling the contract, you will want to be delicate about it. My first piece of advice is to document that decision to cancel in a signed agreement and explain what is going to happen to any fees your clients have paid thus far.

A cancellation contract will be sent out to your clients as a stand-alone contract. A cancellation contract will terminate and supersede the previous service agreement and also any oral agreements you had with your clients (say through emailing back and forth or on a phone call with them).

WHAT IF THE CLIENT HAS BEEN A NIGHTMARE OR ISN’T RESPONDING?

Before you cancel the contract try to reach out to your clients multiple times. Issue them warnings and explain that if you cancel the contract they will not receive their retainer back.

You want to be professional in these situations while also being firm in your business policies! If you cancel due to lack of response from your client you are in the right to keep the retainer- in situations like this it might be best to cancel because your clients are preventing you from fulfilling your obligations under the contract.

Keep in mind that if you decide to keep the retainer you may end up with chargeback scenarios or even threats of lawsuits. Although you are in your right to keep the retainer you may want to return it to avoid dispute in this case. Now I would ONLY return it if you have done little to no work with this client and it is early on in the process. Make sure you try to have them sign a cancellation agreement. They may not sign it and it's okay but they should be receiving an email from you requesting their signatures on the agreement and notifying them of the termination of the contract.

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Tune into Episode 158 and learn more about cancellations including how to cancel if you are experiencing extenuating circumstances or an emergency, the clauses I recommend you have in your cancellation contract, and more tips on how to handle cancellations with professionalism!

If you want more helpful business advice as you’ll hear on the podcast, be sure to join The Legal Paige Facebook Community where thousands of entrepreneurs just like you are getting real-time answers about running a professionally and legally legit business.

Most small business owners I know are 1. Badass and 2. Constantly running between one project and another. There are always SO many things to be done and at times “small” tasks (like making sure contracts are properly sent and signed) can be tedious.

The catch? Sometimes the seemingly smallest tasks aren’t so small when they can have BIG legal consequences. If your business is a limited liability company (LLC) or has multiple owners, this podcast episode is for you.

A popular question in The Legal Paige Community is “Can one person sign on behalf of an LLC?” or “Do all owners need to sign every business contract?” In this podcast episode, I am answering these questions and giving you my legal take on how and who should be signing contracts on behalf of your business.

YOUR BUSINESS FORMATION MATTERS

When you’re signing a contract, your business’ formation matters. Unlike sole proprietors who are their business (and can sign as their business) an LLC is considered a separate legal entity from you as the owner.

That means owners will sign on behalf of the company. You don't need to sign a contract as “The Legal Paige, LLC'' for example, but rather you as the owner will sign YOUR legal name as an authorized representative of the company.

So for example I would sign it as “Paige Griffith” with the title of your position below your signature, so again just as an example, for myself I would then add in the title, “Owner of The Legal Paige, LLC”.

A good thing to note is this doesn’t mean you are personally responsible for debts or liabilities incurred under a contract. You are still afforded the protection of limited liability that an LLC offers when you are the owner signing your name on behalf of the business. And knowing how to properly sign your contract as an LLC is important for keeping that protection bubble of your LLC intact.

MORE FROM THIS EPISODE

Press play on Episode 157 and learn more about how to sign a contract if your business has multiple owners, what sole proprietors need to think about when it comes to signing contracts, and my overarching legal take on the matter! If you want more helpful business advice as you’ll hear on the podcast, be sure to join The Legal Paige Facebook Community where thousands of entrepreneurs just like you are getting real-time answers about running a professionally and legally legit business.

When it comes to running a successful business, it can feel like there are A LOT of legal aspects to consider (and many entrepreneurs become overwhelmed trying to stay on top of it all). Protecting your business is important and there are several ways to do it…but at The Legal Paige we like to tell business owners that what you really need is the business triangle: Insurance, Contracts and the right Business Structure.

While you can't prevent legal issues from arising, having these three main lines of protections with your business will protect your assets and your business if the worst does happen!

In Episode 156, we'll dive into the importance of insurance and how it can protect your business in the event of unforeseen circumstances, your business’s contracts and how they can help define the terms and conditions of your business relationships, and the crucial role that business structure plays in limiting liability and protecting your personal assets.

You’ll walk away with a clear understanding of how all three of these things work together when a legal issue pops up (and the various lines of defense these create to protect you)

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Tune into Episode 156 for more information on the “business triangle” and WHY it’s so important for protecting your business! If you want more helpful business advice as you’ll hear on the podcast, be sure to join The Legal Paige Facebook Community where thousands of entrepreneurs just like you are getting real-time answers about running a professionally and legally legit business.

Let’s say you came up with an AMAZING business name, it’s an extension of your legal name, but it is so unique. You know it exists no where else, and you are literally giddy thinking about what the future holds.

While you are marketing, and doing business under this name, I want to share with you why you should file a DBA application and what it can do for your business..

Whether you are a sole proprietor doing business under a different name then your legally given name. Or you are a seasoned business owner, thinking of operating an extension under your LLC using a different name… this episode is for you.

WHAT IS A DBA?

“Doing Business As” aka “DBA” means that you are running your business under a different name than the name of your business. Sometimes when you start your business your bills and paperwork are under one name but the name that you advertise under is another name. For instance, if you are a sole proprietor that is using a name that is different from your own legal name you would have a DBA (i.e. my personal name is Paige Griffith and my DBA would be “The Legal Paige”). Additionally, if you are an LLC, and you are operating an extension of your business under a name that is different than the legally registered LLC name you would be using a DBA name (i.e. your biz is called Christa's Corner, LLC but you sell things online as “Christa’s Beautiful Belonging”).

WHO SHOULD FILE A DBA?

People often wonder why the heck a DBA is even necessary. Operating under a DBA is a great way to separate your business name from your legal name if you are operating as a sole proprietorship. Additionally, having a DBA will ultimately help you grow, expand, and be an official biz in the eyes of your customers and other businesses in your area because you are operating under a more official name.

Before you start operating under a DBA you need to register it with the state. I cannot tell you how many small businesses operate as a sole proprietorship but have not filed ANYTHING with their state. Here is the main thing you need to know as a sole proprietor: If you are operating your business with a name other than your legal given name you MUST file your DBA in your state and/or county.

It is also often required to have a DBA if you want to set up a business bank account. Although some banks do not require it and you may use your social security number, I STILL recommend getting a DBA to be official with your state.

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Tune into Episode 156 for more information on DBA’s including HOW to actually file a DBA and why this is so important for your business! If you want more helpful business advice as you’ll hear on the podcast, be sure to join The Legal Paige Facebook Community where thousands of entrepreneurs just like you are getting real-time answers about running a professionally and legally legit business.

As an entrepreneur, you're always on the lookout for ways to stay ahead of the curve and grow your business. With the rise of Artificial Intelligence, it's becoming more and more tempting to use online tools and programs to generate content for your brand. But, before you jump on the AI bandwagon, let's talk about the legal implications.

How can you use AI content legally? Do you need a licensing agreement? Can you copyright AI-generated text and pictures? These are the burning questions we'll be tackling in Episode 154 of The Legal Paige Podcast.

What IS AI-Generated Content?

AI-generated content is content that is created using machine learning algorithms, without any direct human input. AI can generate text, images, videos, and even entire websites. For small business owners, AI-generated content can be a game-changer because it can save time and resources. Instead of spending hours creating social media posts, blog content, or product descriptions, business owners can use AI tools and programs to generate content quickly and efficiently.

Can My Business Own AI-Generated Content? Is It Copyrightable?

The answer to this question depends on the specific circumstances of your business and the content that has been generated. In general, businesses can own AI-generated content if they have a license agreement in place with the AI technology provider that grants ownership rights. However, it's important to note that the copyrightability of AI-generated content is a gray area in the legal landscape. In the United States, the Copyright Office has stated that it will only register works created by a human author, which could exclude AI-generated content from copyright protection. However, there is ongoing debate about this issue, and some legal experts believe that AI-generated content should be eligible for copyright protection. All in all, right now as I record this episode in March 2023, it is possible for businesses to own AI-generated content, and it may be eligible for copyright protection. However, it's important to note that the level of involvement of AI in creating the content must be carefully considered. To be eligible for copyright protection, the majority of the work must be created by a human author, with AI only playing a supportive or supplemental role.

What Do I Absolutely Need To Know Regarding The Legalities of Using AI?

Simply put: DISCLOSE WHEN YOU ARE USING AI. When you use AI toward any commercial endeavor, you absolutely should let consumers and the public know AI contributed! Otherwise, you can be at risk of a software company claiming copyright infringement or consumers claiming misrepresentation.

TLP’s suggestion is to do two key things:

Put a disclaimer within your Website Terms & Conditions if you are utilizing AI to create any type of content you are posting on your website. That means if you use AI to write the copy on your website, write blog posts, create stock images, etc. you absolutely should be disclosing that to users.
Put a clause in your client contract if you are utilizing AI in any way for the services you are providing. This is also the most ethical way to approach the use of AI right now because of consumer unawareness until it becomes more mainstream in society.

MORE FROM THIS EPISODE

Press play on Episode 154 and learn more about Artificial Intelligence (AI), how to legally use AI as a small business owner and so much more.

If you want more helpful business advice as you’ll hear on the podcast, be sure to join The Legal Paige Facebook Community where thousands of entrepreneurs just like you are getting real-time answers about running a professionally and legally legit business.

Here's the situation: You had a client inquire about your services (yay!). They seemed excited and the conversation led you to send over a contract. You wait and wait for a response only to hear crickets…so you end up signing on another client for the date in question. You can’t wait around forever, right?

But then the original client comes back and says they are ready to sign. Your stomach drops because you gave away the spot and now you have an angry ex-potential client on your hands demanding that they have that date despite their own lack of communication.

What do you do? Do you give in and cancel the other contract? What if they leave a terrible review about you? In Episode 153 of The Legal Paige Podcast, I dig into this sticky situation and let you in on how I would handle it (and how you can avoid it in the first place).

HOW TO RESPOND IN THIS (STICKY) SITUATION

The most important thing you can do to address this situation is to respond back with the facts! Tell the person that you communicated with them in X way X amount of times. Explain that you book your services on a first come first serve basis and that you waited a certain amount of time (say two weeks) with an open contract and didn’t hear from them. Reiterate that you moved onto a new client, apologize, but be firm in your stance that your services are highly sought after and it’s not your fault that they had such a delay.

TIPS FOR AVOIDING PROBLEMS LIKE THIS IN THE FUTURE

Always set a deadline for when your contracts need to be signed, clearly communicate to your clients that if they don't sign by that date you will open the date back up to other inquiries. Especially important here with sought-after dates.
Follow up 24 hours prior to the contract deadline. Alert the potential client that their deadline is approaching and a signature is necessary to make things official - documentation and proof are your friends here!
Tie up loose ends. After the contract deadline has passed, follow up with the client and say that the contract signing period has lapsed. Therefore, you will open their date back up. Remind them that if they would like to book services or they choose another date, they will have to sign a contract at that time and your pricing is subject to change.

MORE FROM THIS EPISODE:

Tune into Episode 153 of The Legal Paige Podcast for more details about how to handle this sticky situation and avoid it in the future. You don’t want to miss my BEST tip for motivating potential clients to sign ASAP toward the end of the episode.

If you want more helpful business advice as you’ll hear on the podcast, be sure to join The Legal Paige Facebook Community where thousands of entrepreneurs just like you are getting real-time answers about running a professionally and legally legit business.

After experiencing bank fraud pretty significantly at the end of January, I recorded this podcast episode to open up about my experience. One day I woke up, checked my bank account, and noticed a HUGE, and I mean HUGE fraudulent transaction from my bank account. Once I thought I had gotten it all figured out with my bank, we had more fraud hit another business bank account.

After having a bit of time to process and time pass, I am now ready to impart some of these lessons to you, and shed some light on how you can legally protect yourself, separate your bank accounts accordingly, keep your assets separate, and ultimately, why I HIGHLY suggest having an LLC or C corp.

WHAT IS FRAUD?

According to dictionary.com, fraud is deceit, trickery, sharp practice, or breach of confidence, perpetrated for profit or to gain some unfair or dishonest advantage.

Wire fraud is the use of electronic communication with the intent to commit financial fraud. A scammer poses as a trusted source, usually a vendor, company, or family member, and requests an immediate wire transfer of funds. The fraudster will usually play up the urgent need for the funds, often claiming an emergency, as a way to emotionally manipulate the victims.

Now why does this sticky situation matter to you as a business owner? Because it can literally happen to ANYONE, including your friendly online attorney who’s generally got her shiz together.

HOW CAN YOU LEGALLY PROTECT YOURSELF?

Generally speaking, try to use a card to pay for services. A credit card is honestly best because it's not tied to your bank account, but a debit card is fine as a second best option because you can hot card it and cancel it immediately and just get a new one. However, of course, the reality is that if you’re an online business owner like me, you probably have 9823 million online platforms tied to your card for it to auto pay monthly. BUT, my big big big suggestion for you here is to stop paying by check for things and also try your hardest to avoid paying using your bank account number.
*If you are using the same bank for personal and business purposes, get two different logins for your accounts!
Stop storing your passwords on Google chrome or any other type of auto password generator. This is one of the easiest ways for a hacker to get access to your online accounts.
Check your bank accounts daily, if not every other day (that’s what the bank suggested to me).
If you save passwords anywhere, save them in a highly encrypted, two-factor authentication password security program. We actually moved from Lastpass to Keeper because of this issue. And, I’m not going to lie, I’ve been talking with some cyber security gurus about what happened with me and they even said keeping a Rolodex or little notepad of your passwords is oftentimes LESS of a security risk than keeping them in an online platform. Hackers are getting more and more sophisticated and it's really something we all need to be better about. It's not IF it will happen to you, it's when.

MORE FROM THIS EPISODE

Tune into Episode 152 and learn more about my experience with bank fraud including tips for protecting yourself, why you should separate your LLC accordingly, and more. Also, be sure to join The Legal Paige Facebook Community where thousands of entrepreneurs just like you are getting real-time answers about running a professionally and legally legit business.

With Q4 wrapped up, and Q1 kicking off, it’s time to hone in and think about not just our big goals for the year, but what it will take to reach those goals.

The excitement of a new year can leave us almost with a squirrel-like brain! We are still in a bit of fog from the holidays, we have ideas coming and flowing to us and we think we need to jump on everything NOW! It doesn’t help that we are seeing things on social media that are telling us not to wait, to jump in head first, and that we should be a certain point by now for Q1 to be successful.

In part two of this podcast series, I want to take you on a journey of creating your roadmap of your goals and how this will set us on the right path to creating a rock solid foundation for the rest of the year. And like I mentioned, having this roadmap is really going to help curb the squirrel-like brain you may be feeling. Because as business owners, we are here to create lasting, sustainable growth and in order to do that you need to have a foundation that is as rock solid as the contract you send your clients.

START WITH SMOOTH OPERATIONS + PROVISION

I want you to imagine that you could snap your fingers or wiggle your nose and INSTANTLY achieve all of your goals! But hitting all your goals overnight would probably not be all good news. Usually we are not prepared for this type of growth overnight. I want you to use this prompt as an exercise to uncover what you truly need to do to not only hit your goals, but to have a solid foundation in place to support them!

What would go wrong?

What would break?

What other issues would this cause in your life / biz?

This prompt will help you uncover the people, processes, systems, and tasks that are essential to your success. You could even say they are squirrel-proof!

To give you an example, let’s say one of the big goals you set was launching a course and enrolling over 100 students. If you enrolled those students right now, what would the onboarding look like? Would you even be able to send out that many contracts, accept that many payments, and actually be about to onboard everyone with customer service top of mind?

Now I want you to break down all that needs to be done, so things don’t go wrong. So sticky situations hopefully don’t happen. What do you need to put in place now in Q1, what do you need to plug into Q2, and Q3 to make this a successful launch? Because odds are if you are launching something in 2023, all the prep work needs to be done long before Q4.

It’s important after we have set our roadmap for our big goals, to get clear on finding any leaks that could be exposed or amplified when achieving that goal. Again, as we go back to our road trip we are on for 2023, this would be making sure there is air in all 4 tires, that the windshield washer fluid is full, that you don’t need an oil change any time soon. Sort of putting out the fires before they become fires.

MORE FROM THIS EPISODE

Tune into Episode 151 and learn more about setting a roadmap for 2023 including preparing your taxes, using contracts and insurance, and smooth operations. If you want more helpful business advice as you’ll hear on the podcast, be sure to join The Legal Paige Facebook Community where thousands of entrepreneurs just like you are getting real-time answers about running a professionally and legally legit business.

With Q4 wrapped up, and Q1 kicking off, it’s time to hone in and think about not just our big goals for the year, but what it will take to reach those goals.

The excitement of a new year can leave us almost with a squirrel-like brain! We are still in a bit of fog from the holidays, we have ideas coming and flowing to us and we think we need to jump on everything NOW! It doesn’t help that we are seeing things on social media that are telling us not to wait, to jump in head first, and that we should be a certain point by now for Q1 to be successful.

In this two-part podcast series, I want to take you on a journey of creating your roadmap of your goals and how this will set us on the right path to creating a rock solid foundation for the rest of the year. And like I mentioned, having this roadmap is really going to help curb the squirrel-like brain you may be feeling where nuts are falling all around you (whether that be on social media, in your work email inbox, talking to your friends) and you want to munch on them all. But, that’s not sustainable and its hard to know which ones work best. Because as business owners, we are here to create lasting, sustainable growth and in order to do that you need to have a plan and lay the proper groundwork for everything to be properly built on top of.

WHY YOU SHOULD SET A GOALS ROADMAP

During the first few weeks of the New Year, it’s imperative for small businesses to set concrete goals for the upcoming year. Without gaining the clarity on what it is you want to achieve in 2023, and without connecting the dots…you are going to find yourself in the first sticky situation of the year- squirrel brain. If we go to the metaphor of our road trip, this is going to have you driving in circles all year, stuck in the everyday doing motion and it’s going to take you off the path of your aligned dreams. Having a path is essential in every road trip.

As you are setting these goals, I also encourage you to set milestones metrics with your new goals. These milestones help you and your team to identify the progress you are making and reassure you that you are on the right path! How much do you hope to be making by certain points in the year, if you are running launches and sales… How much revenue and students do you hope to bring in and enroll? And if you aren’t sure what metrics to set, look at how well you did the previous year and what you want to grow by. This is going to give you a clear direction on where you need to go, and help prioritize what needs to be done next. Kind of like setting your GPS for your road trip knowing which turns to take and what highways to avoid.

MORE FROM THIS EPISODE

Tune into Episode 150 and learn more about setting a roadmap for 2023 including communicating about your goals, getting team members on the same page, and more! If you want more helpful business advice as you’ll hear on the podcast, be sure to join The Legal Paige Facebook Community where thousands of entrepreneurs just like you are getting real-time answers about running a professionally and legally legit business.

With the holidays quickly approaching, the week between Christmas and New Years can seem like the most hectic time for business owners. How are we supposed to prepare for year end + focus on the new year all while trying to spend quality time with our family and create memories? It’s easy to feel the pull, and the guilt of what we should be doing in our business- frantically checking and refreshing emails- and what we should be doing with our family (aka lounging, snacking on delicious meals, and wondering what day of the week it is).

In today’s episode I am going to share why your business won’t spontaneously combust if you take the week off between Christmas and New Years and some easy tips for setting boundaries during your down time.

TIP #1: TURN YOUR OUT OF OFFICE ON

Write a cute little holiday message, and let your clients know when you will be back in the office. I promise you, there will be ZERO emergencies between now and then. By setting the boundary and letting your clients know should they email you– you’re providing the customer service we all strive for.

TIP #2: DON’T WORRY ABOUT SOCIAL MEDIA .

Plan a holiday post, and then delete the app for a bit. I promise NOT sharing your services, or ways to work with you is not going to make or break your business. Likely your ideal clients are always going to be off social media and with their families as well. So save that hard hitting business post for 2023, where it’s likely to gain the traction it deserves anyways!

TIP #3: LOCK AWAY YOUR WORK COMPUTER

I’m sure that course you bought over Black Friday is super enticing to do on this week off, but is it really time off? From experience, if you do try to tackle that business course, you likely aren’t going to be putting the energy behind it that it deserves. Any action steps needed to take will likely slip off your to-do list. I recommend waiting until 2023 to tackle that project.

MORE FROM THIS EPISODE

Press play on Episode 149 and hear my full run-down on taking time off between the holidays! If you want more helpful business advice as you’ll hear on the podcast, be sure to join The Legal Paige Facebook Community where thousands of entrepreneurs just like you are getting real-time answers about running a professionally and legally legit business.

If we learned anything this past year, it’s that things are ALWAYS changing. As an entrepreneur, it can be incredibly consuming to keep up with it all and to figure out what you should be implementing, marketing, and doing as a business owner when things shift on the daily. Not to mention– there isn’t much extra time to give! Between working with clients, taking care of yourself, and spending time with loved ones…who has time to research the trends and predictions for 2023?

That’s where this podcast episode comes in. In Episode 148 I did the research for you and am sharing the biggest trends we are going to see with business’ next year.

More From This Episode

Plain and simple, no one wants to be left in the dust while all the other businesses are adapting to what consumers want. Tune into Episode 148 for more details about each of these trends so that you can stay on top of your game plan for 2023.

And remember…as you are looking at how your small business can adopt these trends and others, always make sure you are legally legit!

As all the Black Friday sales start rolling in it’s really easy to get swept into thinking, “I want to buy EVERYTHING! That course, that contract, that program and that cute branded mug…”

But maybe you're sitting there wondering what makes the most sense. Do you really need another course- and with year end coming soon (the holidays, taxes, etc.) - is it smart to wait and revisit in 2023? In Episode 147 I am going to show you how to approach Black Friday with your business hat on, manage all the deals + flashy marketing, and take advantage of some deductions before the end of the year.

HOW TO AVOID PANIC-BUYING + MAXIMIZE YOUR BLACK FRIDAY BUDGET

First things first: Look at your finances and then see what you actually need. Are you a photographer who needs new lenses or a graphic designer whose business solely relies on your (rapidly aging) computer? Maybe you hit a few bumps in the road and your contract just wasn’t up to par? Look at the essentials that help your business physically run, bring in more revenue, and potentially save you from a lawsuit.

Second: Start looking at more fun things for your business that in 2023, could help elevate it to the next level. I’m talking about marketing courses, Instagram classes, business retreats, workshops, and everything in between. Star, favorite, bookmark all the courses, classes, retreats, etc you would like to attend in 2023 and logically figure out what you have time for in the coming year.

MORE FROM THIS EPISODE:

Press play on Episode 147 and you’ll learn:

My in-depth Black Friday shopping strategy.
Why you should always look at expiration dates for sales.
The benefits of researching where you are buying from.
And so much more!

If you want more helpful business advice as you’ll hear on the podcast, be sure to join The Legal Paige Facebook Community where thousands of entrepreneurs just like you are getting real-time answers about running a professionally and legally legit business.

We are gearing up for our biggest sale of the year in just a few short weeks and I don't want you to miss it. We're talking major discounts in our entire contract shop! Head over to tlpinsider.com to be the first to know when our sale goes live.

At year's end a topic on every business owners’ mind is: Have I fully maximized my deductions this year? We all want to lower the amount of money we owe to the government– but sometimes it can be a little confusing as to what actually counts. In Episode 146 of The Legal Paige Podcast, I share what purchases you can send to the ‘write off people’ (i.e. the IRS and your state government).

Pro tip: Getting organized with your taxes + deductions BEFORE the holidays will set you up for success in 2023 and help you feel more prepared. With Black Friday next week, you can save on those write off expenses even more because everyone is having a sale. I always tell people waiting until the last minute (like Dec 30th or 31st) could cost you more when you could have gotten a steal over Black Friday if you were strategic about your tax deductions.

Be proactive, think things through, and make wise decisions. Your tax-deduction purchases should benefit your business and contribute to your overall success. My accountant always says even though I could deduct that $1000 purchase, I could also not buy it and make 70% of the $1000 dollars. Sometimes keeping $700 of the $1000 is just a better financial decision. You’re in business to make a profit.

MORE FROM THIS EPISODE:

Tune into Episode 146 and learn:

Office improvements that count as deductions.
How to stock up on supplies + prepay expenses.
Why legal contracts are a great tax write-off.
How to write off bad business debts.
Employee bonuses and gifts that count as deductions.
And so much more!

If you want more helpful business advice as you’ll hear on the podcast, be sure to join The Legal Paige Facebook Community where thousands of entrepreneurs just like you are getting real-time answers about running a professionally and legally legit business.

We are gearing up for our biggest sale of the year in just a few short weeks and I don't want you to miss it. We're talking major discounts in our entire contract shop! Head over to tlpinsider.com to be the first to know when our sale goes live.

We've all been there before with a nightmare client, right?

And if you're new to business and haven’t had your share of stressful clients- it’s probably a matter of when not if. Less-than-ideal clients are an expected part of business ownership; however, if you haven't legally protected yourself, the damage they do can go far beyond headaches. Sticky client situations can lead to loss of significant amounts of revenue and time as well as decrease your emotional well being and increase your stress with lawsuits.

While I can't promise you a magic solution to prevent nightmare clients- I do have ways you can protect yourself before you ever find yourself working with them. In Episode 145, I go over the 4 clauses you should have in your contract to set you up for success within your client relationships (and ultimately help save you thousands in needless legal costs)! These clauses will protect you from legal action and provide you with an escape route for when things turn south.

MORE FROM THIS EPISODE:

Press play on Episode 145 and you’ll learn:

What is a Scope of Service Clause
What is a Limitations of Liability Clause
What is a Scope Creep Clause
What is a Cancellation Clause
The reason you should peek at TLP’s a la carte clauses to bolster your contract.

If you want more helpful business advice as you’ll hear on the podcast, be sure to join The Legal Paige Facebook Community where thousands of entrepreneurs just like you are getting real-time answers about running a professionally and legally legit business.

We are gearing up for our biggest sale of the year in just a few short weeks and I don't want you to miss it. We're talking major discounts in our entire contract shop! Head over to tlpinsider.com to be the first to know when our sale goes live.

Have you been sitting there pondering what 2023 is going to look like?

Maybe you're wondering how you can achieve more next year- reach more people, scale your business to new heights, and even start bringing in new revenue streams! We’ve seen entrepreneur after entrepreneur talk about adding passive income to their business and the various revenue streams that have catapulted them to success. But what ideas are actually going to work in 2023?

After all, we’ve seen in the past 2+ years, we want to build businesses that can withstand it all. But sometimes the logistics of HOW to implement new revenue streams feel murky. Especially if you are a service provider feeling like the only way to grow your business is to trade more time for money.

In part two of this two-part series, I am going to help you cut through all the noise we hear online and share the strategies I recommend the MOST. In this episode, I focus on 2 income streams that you can add to your existing business, especially ones that will help you make more while working less.

By the end of this series, my goal is for you to feel ready to hit the ground running with your new (legally legit) revenue stream.

MORE FROM THIS EPISODE

Press play on Episode 144 and listen as I dig into 2 more promising income streams for 2023. You’ll learn:

The benefits of turning your knowledge into an online course.
How to legally protect your business when offering online courses.
Why I love subscriptions and membership programs.
The legal products your toolkit needs if you want to get into memberships.
And so much more!

If you missed it, check out Part 1 of this series HERE! If you want more helpful business advice as you’ll hear on the podcast, be sure to join The Legal Paige Facebook Community where thousands of entrepreneurs just like you are getting real-time answers about running a professionally and legally legit business.

We are gearing up for our biggest sale of the year in just a few short weeks and I don't want you to miss it. We're talking major discounts in our entire contract shop! Head over to tlpinsider.com to be the first to know when our sale goes live.

Have you been sitting there pondering what 2023 is going to look like?

Maybe you're wondering how you can achieve more next year- reach more people, scale your business to new heights, and even start bringing in new revenue streams! We’ve seen entrepreneur after entrepreneur talk about adding passive income to their business and the various revenue streams that have catapulted them to success. But what ideas are actually going to work in 2023?

After all we’ve seen in the past 2+ years, we want to build businesses that can withstand it all. But sometimes the logistics of HOW to implement new revenue streams feels murky. Especially if you are a service provider feeling like the only way to grow your business is to trade more time for money.

In part one of this two part series, I am going to help you cut through all the noise we hear online and share the strategies I recommend the MOST. In this episode I focus on 3 income streams that you can add to your existing business, especially ones that will help you make more while working less.

By the end of this series, my goal is for you to feel ready to hit the ground running with your new (legally legit) revenue stream.

MORE FROM THIS EPISODE

Press play on Episode 143 and listen as I dig into 3 promising income streams for 2023. You’ll learn:

Easy digital product ideas that could boost your bottom line.
How to legally protect your business when selling digital products online.
Why I love affiliate marketing (and how much TLP brings in from our amazing affiliates).
The legal products your toolkit needs if you want to get into affiliate marketing.
And so much more!

Stay tuned for Part 2 of this series coming soon! If you want more helpful business advice as you’ll hear on the podcast, be sure to join The Legal Paige Facebook Community where thousands of entrepreneurs just like you are getting real-time answers about running a professionally and legally legit business.

We are gearing up for our biggest sale of the year in just a few short weeks and I don't want you to miss it. We're talking major discounts in our entire contract shop! Head over to tlpinsider.com to be the first to know when our sale goes live.

Do you find yourself wishing - DREAMING - of having more time?

What would an extra 20 hours a month mean for you and your business?

Let’s face it, as entrepreneurs we wear SO MANY hats (especially in the first few years of business as we start to pave our own path). CEO, CFO, assistant, customer service rep, tech support, designer, social media manager, therapist, coach, visionary…the list goes on and on.

All of the roles and responsibilities on our plate can really take a toll on us as people– but they also can take away from our craft. The more roles we take on, the more time we are away from doing what we actually love. Soon we can find ourselves wondering why we “followed our passion” when our jobs don’t even resemble what we first started out to do.

Over here at TLP when we are out of our zones of genius, we refer to them as ‘Frankenstein Roles’, …these roles are TIME SUCKERS.

When your weeks are filled with Frankenstein Roles, it costs you:

Time (In your business, away from your craft)
Time (Outside your business, with your family, etc)
Money (If you had those hours back to focus on areas that GROW the business)
Sanity (When you are sucked into this kind of work, it drains you and leads to burnout a lot faster than when you are in flow doing what you love.)

So how do you break free?

The answer is simple: Hiring!

I know hiring can sound like a big leap! (Where do I start? Who do I hire? What do I need in place before I bring someone onto my team)? In Episode 142, I’m pulling back the curtain to share with you the 4 best hires I made that saved me 20+ hours a month!

If you want more helpful business advice as you’ll hear on the podcast, be sure to join The Legal Paige Facebook Community where thousands of entrepreneurs just like you are getting real-time answers about running a professionally and legally legit business.

We are gearing up for our biggest sale of the year in just a few short weeks and I don't want you to miss it. We're talking major discounts in our entire contract shop! Head over to tlpinsider.com to be the first to know when our sale goes live.

Have you heard the exciting news?! The Legal Paige now has contracts available for Canadians! If you are a Canadian entrepreneur, TLP can now help you get legally legit.

In this episode of The Legal Paige podcast, I introduce the attorney we brought on board to help make Canadian Contracts come to life. Courtney is a Canadian lawyer with a general practice based in rural Saskatchewan. The bulk of her work as a lawyer is focused on corporate law, real estate, and wills and estate administration. She is a wife, mother to a new baby born early this year, and lives on a mixed grain and cattle farm!

The Canadian Catalog would NEVER have been able to happen without the help of our gal Courtney and I know you’ll enjoy this episode as we dive into all the important differences between Canadian and US law.

THE BIG DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE CANADIAN + US LEGAL SYSTEM

There are a lot of similarities in the US and Canadian legal system– but the biggest difference between our two country’s contracts lies in the boilerplate clauses. (Boilerplate clauses are those legal-language-heavy clauses that are found at the bottom of your contract). This is because the Canadian courts have been really clear about HOW they are going to interpret contract clauses when there is a dispute…so Canadians need to be especially careful with the wording to make sure the meaning is clear to everyone involved.

Another huge difference between the two jurisdictions is the type of damages that will be awarded. Canadian courts rarely offer high rewards for damages in any case- whether that’s a contract dispute or otherwise. The only way you’ll see a high reward is if there was malicious conduct or highly reprehensible behavior (which is rare and hard to prove). Canadian courts DO often offer awards on cost to the winning party– if you go to trial with somebody in a contract dispute and you win, the other party might be ordered to pay your legal costs up to that point. If you're going all the way to trial you are spending upwards of $50,000 in legal fees so it’s really important for Canadian business owners to be aware of that and to have their bases covered with strong legal contracts.

MORE FROM THIS EPISODE

Press play on Episode 141 listen as we dive deep into the nuances between Canadian and US law. You’ll learn how Canadians should approach Website Terms and Conditions, the differences between copyright law (i.e. the surprising person that actually owns a photograph in Canada), how Canadians should register their businesses, employment laws to be aware of, how the Canadian Courts have handled Covid and service based contracts like ours, and Courtney’s best tips for Canadian business owners.

The Legal Paige is so excited to now have Canadian Contracts available in the shop! Courtney has been a major piece in getting our Canadian Catalog set up and is working through converting all of our TLP Products to living Canadian documents. The biggest takeaway I have for Canadian entrepreneurs- and really all entrepreneurs- is that NOW is the time to get legally legit. Now is the time to get protected. Now is the time to not shove things under the rug to deal with on another day. Your contracts are so important for your business– they are living documents that shift and grow as your business changes and they set the tone in your working relationship with clients.

We are gearing up for our biggest sale of the year in just a few short weeks and I don't want you to miss it. We're talking major discounts in our entire contract shop! Head over to tlpinsider.com to be the first to know when our sale goes live.

If you’re a photographer you know how hard you work to get the perfect shot.

Between creating an ideal lighting scenario, mastering composition, choosing the correct lens, and ensuring your photo sessions run smoothly– you tell a story unlike any other. Many people don’t understand the astronomical amount of post-processing work that happens before a client ever sees their final images (which makes it even more frustrating when someone uses your work for their advertising without consent or payment).

Situations like this pop up all the time in the photography industry. Maybe a venue uses your image on a magazine advertisement without paying for the rights to use it or you see a local dress shop using your images for their latest campaign. In fact, The TLP Facebook Community is filled with questions surrounding this exact topic so you are in good company if you’ve ever wondered, “How do I protect my images while also being generous with my work?”

The solution is quite simple…a licensing agreement can help!

Although vendors often work together, that does not mean you have to give your copyrighted work to vendors for free nor can your vendors automatically use your photos without consent. In Episode 140 of The Legal Paige Podcast I dig into the power of licensing agreements and how you can ultimately leverage them in your business.

DO PHOTOGRAPHERS HAVE COPYRIGHT OWNERSHIP OVER THEIR IMAGES?

Before we dig into licensing agreements, let’s address the legal heavy question on your mind: Do photographers have sole copyright ownership over their images?

The answer is YES! A hundred times over, yes.

(Under U.S. Law, The Copyright Act of 1976 and Title U.S.C. 17 to be exact).

Copyright protection exists the moment your work is created and fixed in a tangible form that can be seen either directly (in a physical form) or with the aid of a machine or device, such as a digital/film camera and computer.

This means you have copyright ownership over your photographs the moment your clients pose, say cheese, or make a funny face and your button is clicked.

With all this in mind remember this: vendors should NOT be using your photos without your permission, in fact NO ONE should be using your photos for commercial reasons without your permission. This is considered copyright infringement and it is against the law. To help protect yourself from infringement we recommend you make it known to every vendor that they can only use your photos if they license them from you first.

SHOULD YOU SHARE YOUR IMAGES WITH VENDORS FOR FREE?

It goes without saying, I am an attorney…not your marketing advisor. There are a wide array of opinions on this topic and some marketing experts might even encourage you to give away your photos with abandon in the name of growing your business.

As the little bird on your opposite shoulder, I always want you to consider the important, legal “what-ifs”. I don’t discredit that sharing your photos with vendors can be a good marketing tactic. But, legally it means that you are freely giving licenses to use photos to vendors without signing an actual license agreement. Some vendors could run with that freedom and do anything with your photos. Can you imagine seeing your photo on a huge billboard without any credit or compensation? That’s the kind of risk you take…

MORE FROM THIS EPISODE

Tune into Episode 140 and learn the nitty gritty details about licensing agreements including the two types of licensing agreements you should consider, my take on if you should require your vendors to pay a fee when licensing, how to navigate sticky situations where the vendor’s contract with the client says they can use your photos for free, and more!

If you only remember one thing from this episode it should be this: You have worked so hard on your business and your photographs are literally your bread and butter. You are not required to give away your hard-earned work for free and it is a smart business move to present your vendors with a licensing agreement. TLP’s Non-Exclusive Licensing Agreement and Exclusive Licensing Agreement will easily help you protect yourself from infringement and sticky legal situations with vendors today!

If you want more helpful business advice as you’ll hear on the podcast, be sure to join The Legal Paige Facebook Community where thousands of entrepreneurs just like you are getting real-time answers about running a professionally and legally legit business.

When it comes to the Covid-19 pandemic, we’ve come a long way since March 2020. National shutdowns and event restrictions are seemingly over (knock on wood) and many business owners are wondering whether they still need to address Covid-19 within their contracts.

The short answer? Yes.

The Covid-19 virus is still an issue, people are getting sick with new variants, and the CDC has kept quarantine measures in place for those that test positive. By no means is Covid-19 obsolete – but it also looks a lot different than it did three years ago. Many people are vaccinated, stores and businesses are fully open, events are happening on schedule, and the scary part of the pandemic seems to be behind us. With all that in mind, it’s important to review your business’ Covid-19 policies and adjust them to align with the times.

In Episode 139 of The Legal Paige Podcast, I stay at the forefront of the pandemic and share my legal perspective on how to keep your business legit and protected with the ever-changing nature of Covid-19. It has been a long three years since this virus appeared and it’s important to adapt your policies to protect yourself and your assets as the world adapts to the new normal. Covid-19 is here to stay but that doesn't mean you should be losing money or compromising your policies indefinitely. Here are a few important things to consider:

COVID-19 POSTPONEMENT + CANCELLATION CLAUSES ARE A THING OF THE PAST

At the beginning of the pandemic, many entrepreneurs added our Covid-19 Postponement & Cancellation Clause to their contract. From March-December 2020, that was100% appropriate as new clients were trying to book and wanted a little ‘pressure release’ on rescheduling in case of issues with hosting their wedding/event due to Covid.

Now, as Covid-19 has become a permanent fixture in today’s world, entrepreneurs have to make hard business rules surrounding their rescheduling and cancellation policies. More and more people in the event and wedding industry are NOT allowing clients to reschedule or cancel anymore due to Covid-19. This is because if clients are choosing to plan an event right now, they are accepting the risk that Covid poses and choose voluntarily to proceed with those planning risks. Not to mention, if you are willing to block out dates on your calendar and say no to other clients; you cannot afford to allow unending reschedules or cancellations forever.

Ultimately, it makes sense for business owners to no longer give this “pressure release valve” or “open-ended rescheduling opportunity” to their clients. In fact, this is what I recommend as we move into the foreseeable future.

AN ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF COVID-19 AND NO RESCHEDULING CLAUSE IS THE WAY TO GO MOVING FORWARD

The Acknowledgement of Covid-19 and No Rescheduling Clause is a resource that still deserves a spot in your contract. This clause will help you communicate to your clients that you DON’T allow rescheduling due to Covid and that you have business policies in place that will apply if they try to change their date due to fear of Covid (i.e. rescheduling fees should apply!)

This clause also outlines that you will continue to perform your services for their wedding/event as long as you are legally able to do so (aka as long as there isn’t a stay-at-home order in place, you contract Covid, or you have been deemed a “close contact” with someone who tested positive and is supposed to quarantine for the health and safety of others). Thus, as long as you can operate your business and do what you are contracted to do for your clients, you will continue to do so and maintain the utmost safety and health precautions.

Furthermore, if your clients contract Covid, you will want to explain in this type of clause what type of policy is in place should that occur. Usually, here, it would be similar to if you tested positive and a one-time reschedule would occur. This would quite literally be the only exception to your strict rescheduling fee policy. All to say, since Covid-19 is still around it makes sense to have your clients continue to acknowledge what will happen if you or they test positive a few days before or the week of the event.

MORE FROM THIS EPISODE

Tune into Episode 139 of The Legal Paige Podcast and learn more about:

How to stay legally protected now that Covid-19 is here to stay.
My take on the necessity of Covid Liability Waivers.
The CORE protection clauses that should always be in your contract.

If you want more helpful business advice as you’ll hear on the podcast, be sure to join The Legal Paige Facebook Community where thousands of entrepreneurs just like you are getting real-time answers about running a professionally and legally legit business.

Truth be told, social media hashtag strategies are becoming more complex by the day. The algorithms change on a dime and even seasoned business owners feel like they take one step forward and two steps back. Not to mention shadowbanning (where you can use one wrong hashtag that leaves you in the dark for an extended period of time) OR all the legal implications of using brand hashtags and potential copyright infringement.

It can be tempting to crawl into a metaphorical hole and never touch social media again, but as a business owner it’s smart to have some sort of online presence. With all its ups and downs, social media can help you reach people who may not have found you otherwise and that is worth its weight in gold. In Episode #138 of The Legal Paige Podcast, I break down one of the main legal dangers on social media: Using brand hashtags! Knowledge is power and by being aware of the potential pitfalls, you can navigate social media with more confidence and ease.

This episode was inspired by a question we received in The Legal Paige Facebook Community regarding Minted’s terms and conditions for using their hashtags. Basically, if you use certain hashtags like #sharemyminted or #mintedartist with a photo online then Minted claims you have essentially agreed to let them do whatever they want with the photo ( including share, reproduce, create derivative works of art from your photo without any compensation). Press play for my take on this situation as well as more tips on using brand hashtags without causing a lawsuit.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS + HASHTAGS

The first thing you should note is that a company may have intellectual property rights to their hashtags. Hashtags have become an integral part of selling products- especially on Facebook and Instagram- and courts are starting to address them in terms of intellectual property. Companies use hashtags during marketing campaigns and it reasonably follows that they want to monitor hashtag usage and prevent competitors from using it.

Can one company monopolize a hashtag? The answer is yes!

The United States Patent and Trademark Office gave some guidance regarding the protectability and registration of hashtags: “A mark comprising of or including the hash symbol (#) or the term ‘hashtag’ is registerable as a trademark of service only if it functions as an identifier of the source of the applicant’s goods or services.”

Hashtag trademarks that have been successfully registered as such in the United States include: #smilewithacoke and #cokecanpics (The Coca-Cola Company), #McDstories (McDonalds), and #makeitcount (Nike). Some hashtags that have been denied registribilty by the USPTO are #worldtravelor ( for a travel site), or #friendsgiving ( for charitable fundraising services). The distinction here is that the trademark was too broad. If you are going to trademark a brand hashtag it must identify your brand.

Although the USPTO has recognized the right to protect your brands hashtags, courts have been a bit split on the issue. A federal court in California ruled that hashtags are merely descriptive devices, not trademarks in and of themselves but in an eastern Louisiana court, hashtags were recognized as being relevant to a trademark claim. Although technology moves fast, court decisions do not and we may not get a uniform decision on this issue for many years.

SO WHAT DOES THAT MEAN FOR SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS THAT USE BRAND HASHTAGS?

Plain and simple: Brand Hashtags can be protected through trademark registration.

The good news is if you’re already using a brand hashtag that is making waves throughout social media you could be able to prevent competitors from stealing it through trademark registration.

The bad news is that if you are sharing hashtagged content on social media and use a competitor’s brand hashtag you could be met with a cease and desist letter. The important thing to note here is that you should research the heck out of a hashtag before using it for your brand.

MORE FROM THIS EPISODE

Tune into Episode #138 of The Legal Paige Podcast and learn more about brand hashtags, whether brands can repurpose works of art that use their brand hashtags without consent, the three types of consent that companies use to get consent from their users, the importance of trademark registration, and my advice for navigating brand hashtags the legally legit way.

If you want more helpful business advice like you’ll hear on the podcast, be sure to join The Legal Paige Facebook Community where thousands of entrepreneurs just like you are getting real-time answers about running a professionally and legally legit business. Who knows, maybe we will even turn one of your questions into a whole podcast episode like this one.

Truth be told, social media hashtag strategies are becoming more complex by the day. The algorithms change on a dime and even seasoned business owners feel like they take one step forward and two steps back. Not to mention shadowbanning (where you can use one wrong hashtag that leaves you in the dark for an extended period of time) OR all the legal implications of using brand hashtags and potential copyright infringement.

It can be tempting to crawl into a metaphorical hole and never touch social media again, but as a business owner it’s smart to have some sort of online presence. With all its ups and downs, social media can help you reach people who may not have found you otherwise and that is worth its weight in gold. In Episode #138 of The Legal Paige Podcast, I break down one of the main legal dangers on social media: Using brand hashtags! Knowledge is power and by being aware of the potential pitfalls, you can navigate social media with more confidence and ease.

This episode was inspired by a question we received in The Legal Paige Facebook Community regarding Minted’s terms and conditions for using their hashtags. Basically, if you use certain hashtags like #sharemyminted or #mintedartist with a photo online then Minted claims you have essentially agreed to let them do whatever they want with the photo ( including share, reproduce, create derivative works of art from your photo without any compensation). Press play for my take on this situation as well as more tips on using brand hashtags without causing a lawsuit.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS + HASHTAGS

The first thing you should note is that a company may have intellectual property rights to their hashtags. Hashtags have become an integral part of selling products- especially on Facebook and Instagram- and courts are starting to address them in terms of intellectual property. Companies use hashtags during marketing campaigns and it reasonably follows that they want to monitor hashtag usage and prevent competitors from using it.

Can one company monopolize a hashtag? The answer is yes!

The United States Patent and Trademark Office gave some guidance regarding the protectability and registration of hashtags: “A mark comprising of or including the hash symbol (#) or the term ‘hashtag’ is registerable as a trademark of service only if it functions as an identifier of the source of the applicant’s goods or services.”

Hashtag trademarks that have been successfully registered as such in the United States include: #smilewithacoke and #cokecanpics (The Coca-Cola Company), #McDstories (McDonalds), and #makeitcount (Nike). Some hashtags that have been denied registribilty by the USPTO are #worldtravelor ( for a travel site), or #friendsgiving ( for charitable fundraising services). The distinction here is that the trademark was too broad. If you are going to trademark a brand hashtag it must identify your brand.

Although the USPTO has recognized the right to protect your brands hashtags, courts have been a bit split on the issue. A federal court in California ruled that hashtags are merely descriptive devices, not trademarks in and of themselves but in an eastern Louisiana court, hashtags were recognized as being relevant to a trademark claim. Although technology moves fast, court decisions do not and we may not get a uniform decision on this issue for many years.

SO WHAT DOES THAT MEAN FOR SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS THAT USE BRAND HASHTAGS?

Plain and simple: Brand Hashtags can be protected through trademark registration.

The good news is if you’re already using a brand hashtag that is making waves throughout social media you could be able to prevent competitors from stealing it through trademark registration.

The bad news is that if you are sharing hashtagged content on social media and use a competitor’s brand hashtag you could be met with a cease and desist letter. The important thing to note here is that you should research the heck out of a hashtag before using it for your brand.

MORE FROM THIS EPISODE

Tune into Episode #138 of The Legal Paige Podcast and learn more about brand hashtags, whether brands can repurpose works of art that use their brand hashtags without consent, the three types of consent that companies use to get consent from their users, the importance of trademark registration, and my advice for navigating brand hashtags the legally legit way.

If you want more helpful business advice like you’ll hear on the podcast, be sure to join The Legal Paige Facebook Community where thousands of entrepreneurs just like you are getting real-time answers about running a professionally and legally legit business. Who knows, maybe we will even turn one of your questions into a whole podcast episode like this one.

Boudoir Photography is a beautiful way for people to celebrate their bodies, reconnect with themselves, and boost their confidence. There’s something downright empowering about (tastefully) baring it all- especially for women who are busy juggling all the roles and rarely have time to get in touch with their inner selves. On Episode #137 of The Legal Paige Podcast, I sat down with Emily Sacco of Emily Sacco Boudoir to dive into all the beauty (and bummers) of running a luxury boudoir photography business. Every photography business has its challenges, but with boudoir you enter into particularly intimate territory with unique legal liabilities. Emily and I’s conversation will help you bolster your own boudoir photography business so you can move forward with confidence (and continue igniting confidence in the clients you serve).

MEET EMILY SACCO

Emily Sacco is a strong working mom who owns a high-end boudoir photography business, Emily Sacco Boudoir. In her line of work, she sees countless women who struggle with feeling sexy and confident. That's why Emily is so passionate about helping women feel their best. She's helped countless women unlock their inner beauty and confidence and is excited to share her knowledge with the listeners of our podcast. Emily's real-life experience with running a business focused on empowering women makes her the perfect person to speak to this topic.

She truly believes that every woman is beautiful and deserves to feel confident in her own skin, and she is excited to share her knowledge with fellow photographers of the Legal Paige Podcast. Whether you're a photographer who’s a working mom like Emily, or simply looking for advice on up leveling your photography skills, Emily's insights are sure to help, inspire, and empower you in your own business.

THE SIMPLEST WAY TO PROTECT YOUR BOUDOIR PHOTOGRAPHY BUSINESS

There are numerous ways to protect your boudoir photography business and a Cancellation and Rescheduling Clause is on the TOP of our list. Boudoir sessions are a luxury service that are prone to cancellations. If a client has to choose between repairing their broken down car or the boudoir shoot they booked a few months ago- the photoshoot will likely be the first thing to go. Similarly, boudoir sessions are intimate and personal which can leave many people with cold feet as their scheduled time draws near. Emily even overbooks by 2-3 sessions each month because it’s basically industry standard to receive that many cancellations and reschedules.

All that being said, a Cancellation Clause and Rescheduling Clause is a must if you are a boudoir photographer as they outline the policies and additional fees you will uphold if a client does choose to cancel or reschedule. Being proactive and addressing these situations at the beginning of your client relationship will ultimately save your bottom line and give you peace of mind.

MORE FROM THIS EPISODE

Press play on Episode #137 and you’ll hear more of Emily’s must have contract clauses, why she doesn’t recommend allowing anyone else into a boudoir shoot (even BFFS), her expert opinion on things like cell phones, locations, alcoholic beverages, and hair + makeup during boudoir shoots, how you should approach model releases with boudoir photography, and how to navigate sticky situations that might arise in this line of work. If you are a boudoir photographer, this episode is a must-listen and will leave you with practical advice on how to run a more legally legit and thriving business. Need a solid contract to add to your legal toolkit?

Shop The Boudoir Contract, Today →

Imagine this: A wedding photographer booked a couple earlier this year. As the countdown grew closer to the big day, the monkeypox outbreak spread across the country, public health emergencies were declared, and the client spirals into a downright panic. The photographer opens up their email to find their client trying to get out of their contract due to the “national emergency”. Despite the photographers’ best customer service skills, the couple keeps persisting and states that the situation is Force Majeure- they can’t continue the event as planned and need to cancel ASAP. What should the photographer do? Do they have to cancel the event, refund the client, and take a huge loss? What legal leg do the clients actually have to stand on and ultimately…when IS a national public health emergency a valid cause for cancellation?

Recently, The Legal Paige Facebook Community has been getting TONS of questions regarding cancellations, public health emergencies, and monkeypox (cue horrific flashbacks to 2020). As an attorney, I can assure you that not every situation is a Force Majeure event (even if your client tries to say it is). This podcast episode will shed light on how to navigate public health emergencies, what constitutes a real Force Majeure event, and the tools you need to have in your legal toolkit to navigate situations like monkeypox moving forward (Covid-19 PTSD not included).

PUBLIC HEALTH EMERGENCIES + MONKEYPOX

A Public Health Emergency is declared by the Secretary of Health and Human Services when they have determined a disease that may be of public concern. Most Public Health Emergencies have an expiration of 90 days but can be extended if the Secretary feels appropriate. When a Public Health Emergency is declared it opens up more funding for vaccinations, a quicker response time, and additional resources (i.e. it fast tracks the issue).

On August 4th, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra declared Monkeypox a Public Health Emergency. Monkeypox is defined by the CDC as “a rare disease caused by infection with the monkeypox virus. Monkeypox virus is part of the same family of viruses as variola virus, the virus that causes smallpox. Monkeypox symptoms are similar to smallpox symptoms, but milder, and monkeypox is rarely fatal.”

If Monkeypox is a rare disease and is rarely fatal you are probably wondering why the White House decided to declare it a Public Health Emergency. In the last few weeks the US has seen a significant uptick in cases that has caused some concern. At the time of recording, there were 7,510 cases in the United States with numbers on the rise. There is a vaccination for Monkeypox called JYNNEOS, but there is a limited supply which is causing a shortage in hospitals and pharmacies. By declaring Monkeypox a Public Health Emergency the Biden Administration put the disease in the #1 line for funding and it prioritized the production of the JYNNEOS vaccine.

WHAT ACTUALLY QUALIFIES AS A FORCE MAJEURE EVENT?

During the beginning stages of the Covid-10 pandemic, many clients were able to cancel their contracts for their events by enacting the Force Majeure Clause. They were able to do this because it was unforeseeable, unpredictable, and the contractual obligations were impossible to perform (those three things have to be true to be able to enact Force Majeure). With clients beginning to invoke Force Majeure again for the latest public health crisis, it’s important to note that Monkeypox does not qualify as a Force Majeure event. In fact, MOST Public Health Emergencies don’t. Force Majeure was created for out of the blue, “acts of god” like tornadoes, hurricanes, wildfires, terrorism, war– events that no one could have imagined or anticipated. The beginning of Covid-19 qualified as Force Maejure because the world was unpredictably shut down. Nobody could leave their house. There was an inability for contracts to be executed. Even if your clients wanted to continue with their wedding in say April of 2020, they literally could not due to the shutdowns across the United States.

That ‘impossibility of performance’ we saw with Covid-19 is what you need to keep in mind when new public health emergencies pop up. .Is it impossible for you to perform your contractual obligations because of the emergency? If so, you could probably enforce Force Majeure. If you CAN perform your obligations then you are just in general cancellation territory.

MORE FROM THIS EPISODE

Press play on Episode #136 to learn more about Force Majeure events, how to navigate public health emergencies with clients, the protection clauses you absolutely need to have in your contract, and more! If you haven’t stocked your legal toolkit with a solid cancellation agreement, now is a great time to set yourself up for success. The Legal Paige team and I are always watching things unfold in the news, so if monkeypox or any other public health emergencies take a wild turn for the worse…we will be updating you and helping you handle any sticky situations.

Finally, remember our FREE Facebook Community is a great, go-to resource for industry professionals.

Imagine this: You’ve come up with a genius business idea and are 100% certain that it is THE next big thing. After much debate you brainstorm a name that is bound to go viral and quickly dig into bringing it all to life. You buy a website domain, grab the social media handle, and are well on your merry way to entrepreneurial success when you find out…someone else has your business name. Cue sad trombone

Do you throw a tantrum? Contact the person and cause a scene? Look at trademarking the name before they can? Or is it time to relinquish your favorite business name (even though it makes you feel like your great idea is crumbling to the ground)?

In Episode #135 of The Legal Paie Podcast, I walk you through what you can and cannot do when it comes to using the same business name as someone else. Choosing a name for your business is important, expensive, and often an emotional process so it’s worth understanding how to navigate these sticky situations.

HOW TO PICK A BUSINESS NAME

When you are first starting out, it's important to make sure you are not using the same business name as someone else in your industry. If you are in the wedding and event industry in the Northeast and find a plumber with the same business name in the Southwest- don’t worry about changing your name. Legally speaking, you are probably okay because the likelihood of confusing the two brands is slim to none. On the other hand, if you own a business that sells tees and tanks and you want to use a name that a coffee shop is currently using- be careful! If that shop also sells branded t-shirts, you’ll want to consider a different name because they tangentially sell a clothing item in a similar realm to your business.

While some situations are more nuanced, others will automatically result in a Cease and Desist letter (with a gut-punch fine). ‘Apple’, ‘Spanx’, ‘Disney’, ‘Vogue’ - these are big enough companies that you should never mess with their name unless you want to get sued. They are federally trademarked, have in-house lawyers, and keep tabs on who may be infringing on their mark. Not worth it.

So how DO you safely pick a business name? Research research research!

Search for the name on Google. Search your name with keywords for your business and goods. If you find a company with your same name, look to see what goods they sell, or what they offer customers. Ask yourself if there is a chance they could ever sell what you are offering as a natural expansion to their business. If so, it’s time to pursue other options.
Search for the name in your State Business Registry + State Trademark Registry. If you find a match, do some digging and find out what the other business is, whether it's still active and where it is located.
Search for the name in the United States Patent and Trademark office. This is where things might get a bit complicated because the USPTO is a little hard to navigate and you may end up missing a business that has your name. If you are really concerned about your business name, a trademark attorney may be your best bet at finding out whether someone is using your name.

MORE FROM THIS EPISODE

Press play on Episode #135 and you’ll learn more tips on how to pick your business name, steps you can take to KEEP your business name, why trademarking is usually a good idea, and how to address disputes regarding your business name should they arise. If you are in the process of establishing your business or choosing a name, this episode is a MUST listen and will set you up for success. If you want more helpful business advice like you’ll hear on the podcast, be sure to join The Legal Paige Facebook Community where thousands of entrepreneurs just like you are getting real-time answers about running a professionally and legally legit business.

Lastly- if this episode has inspired you to protect your brand, you’re in luck! I created a guide, "Legally Protecting Your Brand and Trademarking Guide" to explain the legalities of protecting your brand including copyrighting, trademarking, Non-Disclosure Agreements, contracts, and designing a unique logo. I also walk you through a very detailed step-by-step tutorial of how to search the United States Patent and Trademark Office trademark database and how to register your trademark application on the TEAS platform. (That alone is worth over $1500 if you were to hire an attorney to do it for you).

Grab The Trademark Guide, Here! → thelegalpaige.com/trademarkguide

Is your dream job ‘travel influencer’? I don’t blame you! There’s something magical about the thought of traveling to the world’s most beautiful destinations, snapping awe-inspiring photos, and sharing your experiences with tens of thousands of fans.

As with any career, there are laws and regulations in place even in the influencing space that you should be aware of before you pack your suitcase. In fact, a travel influencer was sued this spring for saying she was the first woman to travel to every country online (along with many other issues).

In this episode, Lauren Wolfe joins me to dig into this lawsuit, explain what happened, and go over why influencers need to be compliant when it comes to posting on social media.

MEET LAUREN WOLFE

Lauren Wolfe is Counsel at Travelers United, a consumer advocacy group focused on travel based in Washington, DC. When not doing consumer advocacy work, Lauren loves travel, running marathons very slowly and biking around town. She's been to over 100 countries and hopes to one day visit them all. As Counsel for Travelers United, Lauren brought the first non-profit case against an influencer for deceptive advertising and she's also the lead - and only - attorney against an army of corporate attorneys in Travelers United's suit against MGM Resorts International and their use of hotel resort fees.

Be sure to follow along with Lauren + the good work she is doing with Travelers United:

Instagram: @wolfetravellaw

Website: Travelers United

Facebook: Travelers United

THE 3 BIG ISSUES WITH TRAVEL INFLUENCING TODAY

When researching this case, Lauren found there are three big issues with travel influencing today. 1) Lack of clarity about what is a sponsored post. 2) Reviews by travel influencers that are not marked as paid reviews and 3) False biographical info to make themselves seem cooler to get more fans. The influencer that was sued had all three issues along with making up sponsorships she didn’t actually have. When it comes to the legal side of influencer marketing, problems arise when influencers start promoting products, putting up affiliate links for products, or directly selling to consumers via social media or their own website and they make false claims while selling those goods.

MORE FROM THIS EPISODE

Press play on Episode #134 and you’ll hear the nitty gritty of the lawsuit, Lauren’s advice for influencers to make sure they are staying within FTC guidelines, why influencers need to be aware of their individual state’s regulations, what rules international influencers need to follow with audiences that span the globe, and much more! If you want more helpful business advice like you’ll hear on the podcast, be sure to join The Legal Paige Facebook Community where thousands of entrepreneurs just like you are getting real-time answers about running a professionally and legally legit business.

In Episode #133 of The Legal Paige Podcast, I connected with wedding planner pro- Brandee Gaar- to dig into the legal, sticky situations that are common in the wedding planning industry (especially with inflation driving up costs), how to navigate destination weddings without hurting your bottom line, must-have clauses all wedding planners should have in their contracts, how to ensure you still get paid even if your client cancels last-minute, and so much more! If you are a wedding planner (seasoned OR brand new), Brandee is a treasure trove of knowledge and this episode will set you on the fast track to a more legally legit, sustainable, and luxurious business.

MEET BRANDEE GAAR

Brandee is a luxury Event Planner, Thought Leader, Educational Speaker and Host of The Wedding Pro CEO Podcast. As a lifelong lover of all things events, Brandee spent 7 years as a corporate event planner with the prestigious Gaylord Hotels brand before opening her own event consulting firm. Blush by Brandee Gaar and Eleven Events by Blush have quickly become known for their over the top events and high touch standard of customer service.

Brandee is passionate about teaching new and aspiring entrepreneurs her exact strategies in growing two 6-figure businesses. She provides expert tools for those who are ready to make their side hustle into a full time passion. Her goal is to help new businesses beat the statistics by starting with a success-minded focus!

WANT A PROFITABLE WEDDING PLANNING BIZ? READ THIS

In the age that we’re living in with pricing going all over the place, Brandee shared that one of the most IMPORTANT things wedding planners can do is be in touch with your industry! Stay in communication with your vendors & get a grip on what they are dealing with so you fully understand any price increases that might arise. For your clients, one of the biggest benefits to using a wedding planner is your advice and expertise. They are hiring you because you have a pulse on the industry, know what is happening, and can be a great negotiator for both sides.

Advocate well for your partners and advocate well for your clients so that you can come to a beneficial, win-win agreement. With happy parties on both sides, your business will naturally grow.

MORE FROM THIS EPISODE

Press play on Episode #133 and you’ll learn:

How to avoid the legal, sticky situations that are common in the wedding planning industry (especially with inflation driving up costs).
Must-have clauses ALL wedding planners should have in their legal contracts.
How to ensure you still get paid even if your client cancels last-minute.
The reason “production schedules” will save you from getting burned as a wedding planner.
The differences between “day-of coordination” and “full-service planning” and how to make sure you don’t get in over your head.

You’ll QUICKLY find from listening to Brandee’s experiences that it’s important to have a legally legit foundation backing you when you run a wedding planning business. With The Legal Paige’s Wedding Contract, you'll be covered for any situation. Included is a communication clause that will ensure you are contacted only during your office hours (so no late-night texts with brides), your day-of hours of coverage is set-in-stone and that any additional hours will be invoiced at your hourly rate, all of your duties as a coordinator are explained and signed off on (including what you will NOT be doing), your client’s responsibilities such as paying their own vendors and vendor cancellations, time limits on modifications and changes to the overall wedding theme, your travel expenses, use of wedding images from the photographer, and more!

Shop The Wedding Planning Contract!

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It’s that time of year again: WEDDING SEASON! If you’re a wedding photographer, you are right in the thick of busy weekends, back-and-forth communication, and a big editing queue. It's beautiful. It’s exhausting. And emotions are high.

So what do you do when emotions are a little bit too high? In this episode, I tackle the topic of the indecisive (and unhappy) client.

FRAMING THE SITUATION

One year ago your clients (both spouses!) signed your wedding photography contract and you had them list out all the shots they wanted for their big day.

Fast forward to their wedding and kids are running everywhere, family isn't anywhere to be found, and the bride just wants to get photos done because they are running behind schedule.

You pull out that family photo list they created 60 days prior and—because people are not where they are supposed to be—your client tells you to skip a few shots and that “it really isn't a big deal”. You do your best to persuade them to get all the photos on your list, but they insists on moving on.

Sound familiar? It’s par for the course in wedding photography…

On gallery delivery day they are upset because they wish they would have had that cousin shot they originally asked for. Even worse, they demand a refund because they claim you did not deliver what was in the poses list. What are you supposed to do?!

YOU WIN MORE BEES WITH HONEY

You always want to handle this kind of situation with kindness. It’s important to try to retain the relationship (and hopefully get some good reviews). With that being said, there are steps you can take to be kind AND protect your own business from situations like this- namely, having a strong contract!

MORE FROM THIS EPISODE

Tune into Episode #132 and learn the exact clauses you need to have in your contract to protect you from this scenario, what I would personally say to a couple in this situation, an offer you may want to consider giving your couple when you miss shots on their wedding day, and what you can do if the bride absolutely insists on a refund. Photographers, press play on this one! And if you’re craving even more community? Be sure to join The Legal Paige Facebook Group where thousands of entrepreneurs just like you are getting real-time answers about running a professionally and legally legit business.

In Episode #131 of The Legal Paige Podcast, I went solo to chat about growing a legal (and enticing) associate photography program. As a former photographer myself, I have a special place in my heart for all my camera-slingin’ friends who want to grow a sustainable business. IMO, associates are a great place to start because they allow your business to be in multiple places at once WITHOUT adding more to your calendar. Whether you are new to the entrepreneurship game or a seasoned vet, this episode is going to be extremely helpful in growing your associate program.

WHAT IS AN ASSOCIATE?

Associates are usually Independent Contractors who are hired by you to represent your business. They can either work alongside you or in place of you (but most end up actually filling the shoes you can’t be in because you are already somewhere else). Although they are commonly talked about in the photography industry, associate programs are a great model to use for many businesses! For example, let’s say you are a hairstylist: You’ve built up your business doing weddings and events but you really want to ditch working weekends + focus your energy on managing and growing your salon. By hiring associates to do weddings and events FOR your brand, that stream of income will remain intact while you focus on higher-level, CEO duties.

It’s a win/win, right?

Beyond the obvious benefits of having your brand in multiple places at once, hiring associates is also a GREAT way to dip your toes into growing your team without hiring dedicated employees. You’ll be able to delegate, build your business, learn your leadership style, and scale your revenue without the cumbersome details that hiring employees can bring.

In the photography + videography industry, most associates already have an established business and foundation of skills for you to draw from. They LOVE the art of shooting but aren’t quite ready to handle all the marketing, workflows, branding, SOPs, client communication, and sales of their own business. An associate program gives them the opportunity to work for someone, gain valuable experience in the industry, and do what they love without all the backend work.

HOW TO MAKE YOUR ASSOCIATE PROGRAM LEGAL

You may be sitting there thinking, “I’ve tried to hire an associate in the past, but it was NOT a good experience.” or “My friend just told me a horror story about the associate she recently had to fire!”

As with any business endeavor, there are definitely risks to starting an associate program but the benefits can be truly worth it! It’s important to make sure you are protected and have your legal bases covered from the VERY beginning of your professional relationship with a new associate. Specifically, you should use an Associate Contract that lays out the duties of the associate, their pay, travel reimbursement, and all your expectations for them. Aside from those kinds of clauses, your contract should also have several non-negotiable clauses that I thoroughly cover in this episode.

MORE FROM THIS EPISODE

Press play on Episode #131 and find out:

The must-haves your associates need before they join your team.
Signs that your business is ready to bring on associates.
How adding an Associate Program could increase your bottom line.
4 clauses that should be inside EVERY Associate Contract.
My secret for securing associates that WANT to refer your business + work for you long-term.
How to ensure your associates actually complete their obligations.

Remember! Before you jump ahead and start implementing your new associate program- it’s important to have a legally legit foundation backing you. Should any legal sticky situation arise with your associate program you want to make sure you are protected. That’s why having a strong contract in place is super important and needs to be one of the first steps you take.

Check out our line of Associate Contracts, HERE!

In Episode #130 of The Legal Paige Podcast, I sat down with family photographer and educator, Jodi Lynn Buckles of Jodi Lynn Photography. Jodi Lynn and I had a wonderful discussion about the business side of family photography- an area that can feel overwhelming when your heart beats for capturing connection (not figuring out how to book out your calendar or avoid customer service issues). We chatted about the legal clauses you should have in your family photography contract, sticky situations you want to avoid when having families as your main clientele, pricing your family photography competitively and how to upsell to your clients without feeling icky. It’s a must-listen episode if you are pursuing family photography and I know you’ll leave feeling inspired by Jodi Lynn’s knack for meeting other artists on their journey and helping them find their unique voice.

MEET JODI LYNN

Jodi Lynn is a Mother to four precious souls, wife to a loving mountain man, daughter, Emotive Family + Motherhood Photographer and Mentor in beautiful Sonoma County, California, soon to be North Idaho. She is passionate about creating living poetry with her imagery and nothing fills her heart more than producing meaningful art that truly tells unique, tangible stories of connection, beauty, and truth. Photography has been a way for her to foster and share love with others and to be genuine with her craft. Seeing that true human connection and significance in her work, and with those whom she teaches, makes her heart sing. She hopes to inspire others to do some soul searching and to find their true why.

Jodi mentors other Photographers in creating the business of their dreams, setting them up for success, supporting them in attracting their ideal client, providing excellent client communication and a true experience. All while producing meaningful work that is representative of the unique, heartfelt stories we tell.

Be sure to follow along with Jodi Lynn + all the meaning and connection she offers through her work:

Instagram: @jodilynnphotography

Website: www.jodi-lynnphotography.com

Facebook: Jodi Lynn Photography

MORE FROM THIS EPISODE

Tune into Episode #130 and you’ll get answers to some of your top family photography business questions:

“What are some of the things you WISH you had in your family photography contract when you first started?”
“What should family photographers do when clients ask for photos 1-2 years after their shoot?”
“How do you price your family sessions competitively in the market but also clients that are in love with your work + vision?”
“How has your family session pricing evolved throughout the years and how do you upsell without feeling salesy?”
“What is one piece of hard won advice you have to offer family photographers?”

Press play for a jam-packed and inspiring episode that will set your family photography business on the path to success! Want more helpful photography business content like this? Be sure to join The Legal Paige Facebook Community where thousands of entrepreneurs just like you are getting real-time answers about running a professionally and legally legit business.

Ready to ensure your family photography business is legally legit? Shop our Maternity + Newborn Photography Collection filled with lawyer-drafted, easy-to-use legal products that cover the sticky situations you might encounter as a family photographer.

In Episode #129 of The Legal Paige Podcast, I sat down with beauty biz strategist, Tiyana Robinson, to uncover the legal woes in the solopreneur beauty industry + draw upon her entrepreneurial expertise. (Spoiler alert: She is a treasure trove of amazing advice!) Many beauty professionals come from a traditional cosmetology school background or are self-taught artists that turned their passion into a lucrative side hustle. As every creative entrepreneur knows- sometimes the BUSINESS side of running a business is overwhelming and Tiyana does such a great job of simplifying what it takes to run a freelance beauty business “like a mogul”.

MEET TIYANA ROBINSON

Tiyana is an award-winning Washington DC-based Professional Makeup Artist and Founder of Beauty Mogul University, where she teaches Makeup Artists and Solo Beauty Pros how to diversify their income, create money on-demand, and launch their digital beauty businesses by offering online classes, courses and digital + physical products so they can make money beyond their chair. She has been featured in Black Enterprise, Entrepreneur.com, Essence Magazine, and in 2020 she was included in The Root’s “Glow-Up 50”- an annual celebration of the black tastemakers, trendsetters, and innovators elevating the world of style- in the same category as Rihanna (yup, she’s pretty cool). As a Beauty Mogul Coach, she’s helped HUNDREDS of solo beauty pros double or triple their rates, grow their business to six figures, launch their own signature beauty products, level up their branding + stand out in their city, and become the go-to local beauty superstar for the signature service they provide.

Be sure to follow along with Tiyana + all the beauty she brings to the world!

Instagram: @tiyanarobinsonbeauty
Websites: tiytaughtme.com, beautyfunnelacademy.com
Facebook: Makeup Mogul Official

MORE FROM THIS EPISODE

Tune into Episode #129 and you’ll get answers to your burning HMUA questions like, “How do I navigate the dichotomy between my client’s wishes and my personal style?” “What clauses do I need to have in my HMUA contract from the get go?”, “What should you charge for a retainer fee when every group size varies?”, and “What should every new beauty professional know as they enter into entrepreneurship?” This one is a must-listen for all my HMUA friends- and if you’re craving even more community in the world of beauty? Be sure to join The Legal Paige Facebook Group where thousands of entrepreneurs just like you are getting real-time answers about running a professionally and legally legit business.

The Legal Paige Shownotes

In Episode #128 of The Legal Paige Podcast I’m covering the questions that most small business owners have about CONTRACTS! Do you need a contract? Will a contract really be beneficial to your business? Can you use one contract for a variety of purposes or do you need to purchase different types of contracts for each service? Tune in and I’ll share how contracts will actually change your business and whether you can use one template contract for all your needs!

The Legal Paige Shownotes

Episode Highlights

I am covering questions that most small business owners have about contracts!
I am sharing my legal answer on if you can use one contract for a variety of purposes.
Why a contract will be extremely beneficial and change your business!
How adding any legal document to your toolkit as a new business owner should be step #1.
And so much more!

Worth Noting

"Having a contract for your business can prevent stress, money, problems, lawsuits, legal debacle, extreme confrontations... You name it. Having that contract in place can be the difference between thriving or failing. You don't go into business with the intention of failing. So why would you put yourself in that position without a proper contract in place for your clients to sign?"

- Paige's advice on why having contracts can be the difference in your business.

"Many people think that like a long lengthy contract is scary and it's going to like scare off your clients. And I have heard the exact opposite from TLP customers. They're booking higher end clients, their highest packages because their contracts are so thorough and are two-sided and have roles and rights and responsibilities of all parties."

- Paige on why a contract isn't going to scare potential clients away, but actually bring you high-end clients.

"Here at TLP we offer what's called à la carte clauses. They are clauses that can be added into your existing contract if you feel like your contract needs it. They are written from the perspective of a lawyer who knows how to write contracts and who knows how to properly wordsmith legal language to be in very understandable. Some of these clauses are things such as COVID clauses, because we realized every business has different policies. And depending on how you run your business, your morals and your ethics, you can choose a clause that best suits your practices."

- Paige's take on why certain clauses aren't included in template contracts

TLP Resources:

Become a TLP Insider

Find Contracts & Clauses in The Legal Paige Shop

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Join Our Free Facebook Community

The Legal Paige's Facebook Community

In Episode #127 of the podcast, I discuss Contract Cancellations and how to best go about them with clients (whether its because your clients want or need to cancel, or you’re needing to cancel for some reason). Obviously this issue is a touchy subject because no one ever intends to enter into a contract to terminate it before all parties have completed their performance. Also, sometimes cancelling can lead to bad tastes in clients mouths, yucky feelings all around, and bad reviews (which is the worst case scenario). So we want to talk to you about how to handle these situations from a legal perspective, also with the utmost customer service, so that you can drastically reduce your risk of getting into more trouble later down the road.
The Legal Paige Shownotes Episode Highlights * How to handle cancellations from a legal perspective. * Why customer service is still extremely important during these types of situations. * How you can drastically reduce your risk of getting into more trouble later on down the road. * Which legal documents you are going to want to add to your legal toolkit going forward. * And so much more!

Worth Noting

"If you're absolutely just done with the client and you can't work with them anymore. You need to give them a full refund, including their entire retainer. You also need to try to have them sign a cancellation agreement. This is in particular because the cancellation agreement has a couple of clauses in it that I'm going to talk about in a little bit, that will save you, hopefully from any type of like defamatory statements or reviews online."

- Paige on what to do when you are canceling the contract as the service provider.

"In your cancellation clause, you need to have a notice of provision. That the client needs to cancel within X amount of days, or they forfeit all payments and the retainer. Then we also recommend that you make your retainer non-refundable so that if there is a cancellation by the client, you at least get the retainer for your services."

- Paige's advice on what to have in your cancellation contract should the client want to cancel.

"No matter if you're the one canceling or your clients are canceling, you always want to make sure you try to get your clients to sign a cancellation agreement. I do not believe just an email is sufficient. It's a good starting point, but I want you to try to get them to sign terms related to how you both are deciding to cancel and terminate the contract. Also a cancellation agreement, always supersedes any written or oral agreements between you and the client, and it releases you of any further obligations to your client."

- Paige's advice on why sending a cancellation agreement is important.

TLP Resources: * Become a TLP Insider

Find Contracts & Clauses in The Legal Paige Shop * The Legal Paige Shop

Join Our Free Facebook Community * The Legal Paige's Facebook Community

In Episode #126 of the podcast, I discuss the clauses members of The Legal Paige Community WISHED they would have put in their contract. The truth is, there are certain clauses you should always have in your contract because they can save you a world of headaches + legal troubles- in this episode, you’ll hear my list of must-haves as well as insight from our community on clauses they regret not having. If you don’t take it from me, take it from them!

The Legal Paige Shownotes Episode Highlights * My list of must-haves when it comes to clauses that will save you a world of headaches and legal troubles. * Insight from the TLP community and clauses they have regret on not having in their contracts. * Clauses to help when sticky legal situation happen like; breakdown in communication, you or the client chooses to cancel, when someone asks you to do something illegal, etc. * And so much more!

Worth Noting "Obviously parties can absolutely cancel a contract. So in your cancellation clauses, you need to have cancellation by the client and then cancellation by you as the company. You have to allow that to occur usually within a contract and you need to have clauses regarding what happens if those things occur." - Paige on cancellation clauses in your contracts.
"If you are a type of professional whereby you work with clients for an extended period of time you need to have a harassment clause. This doesn't just have to be in person. And I want to be clear here, harassment can occur in a multitude of ways. So it's good to have a harassment clause, even if say like you're a website designer. And you just have something extremely weird happened during a client call and there's like something that happens. That is where harassment clause really protects you in those situations." - Paige's advice on harassment clauses in contracts and when you need one.

"A scope of services is essential to any contract. It gives a very clear picture of what you will provide to your clients when you provide a scope of services within your invoice or within the very top clause of your contract for many service providers. This is clause numero UNO. There's no guesswork for your clients in regards to what you will be providing for the amount that they are paying you. And if there is a breakdown of communication between you or your clients, or you are going beyond the scope of services. You can always refer them back to these bullet points of the scope of services." - Paige's advice on why a scope of services is so important to include with your contract.

TLP Resources: * The Legal Paige's Protection Clause Bundle * Become a TLP Insider

Find Contracts & Clauses in The Legal Paige Shop * The Legal Paige Shop

Join Our Free Facebook Community * The Legal Paige's Facebook Community

In Episode #125 of The Legal Paige Podcast, I chat with Adam Mason- a Washington D.C. based wedding photographer, mentor, and host of the Bearded Tog Podcast- about the #1 easiest way to avoid legal troubles with your clients (hint: it’s NOT contracts). As photographers continue to book sessions for the rest of 2022 and 2023, it’s so important to focus on avoiding legal troubles and putting customer service first. Adam has NEVER experienced any major legal debacles because he has mastered the art of customer service. Tune in to learn...

The Legal Paige Podcast Shownotes Episode Highlights * Why customer service should be one of your TOP priorities as a savvy business owner (and how focusing on customer service has changed Adam’s business for the better). * The onboarding process and customer service touchpoints Adam includes in his business to ensure his clients are taken care of + delighted with their experience. * What to do when you just can’t seem to make a client happy (no matter how great your communication or streamlined your process). * And so much more!

Worth Noting "The goal is to get to that phone call, and then on the phone treat them as if they're new. I'm not treating them as me the salesperson.I just want to talk about wedding stuff. What they need, and what they don't need. One of my lines, I always say on the phone too, is that like, I'm more of a pragmatist, not a salesman. I don't want to sell them anything they don't need. I want to be intentional and have impact on what they're looking for. And make sure that they're stress-free." - Adam's advice on calls with clients and not being the salesperson.

"My big thing and it's our company value... is set the tone. Because if I don't set the tone, and again this goes back to relationships. If you don't set the tone, someone else will. If you don't love them, feed them, care for them, honor them, respect them. Someone else will, if you don't set the tone. That's where the knot.com comes in and says, this is what your photographers should be doing. This is where their bridesmaid comes in and say, this is what your photographers should be. I don't want that to happen. " - Adam's advice on setting the tone for customer relationships

"You can present a boundary. If you're in a healthy relationship with these clients, most of them will just know your boundaries by you setting them. You won't even have to bring it up. And if these folks want to go past a boundary or abusing those boundaries, again, we go back to a relationship. That's an abusive relationship and we've got to cut bait. We've got to get out of there. And then you just try and find the most amicable way to do that."- Adam's advice on setting boundaries while still presenting great customer service.

Adam Mason: * Follow Adam On Instagram * Follow Adam On Facebook * Visit His Website

TLP Resources: * Do You Need A Model Release - Blog Post * Become a TLP Insider

Find Contracts & Clauses in The Legal Paige Shop * The Legal Paige Shop

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Business owner, are you dealing with a massive rise in costs of supplies and goods? Is it leaving you looking at current contracts, budgets, and amounts wondering how your business is going to survive?
Maybe you've routinely practiced in your mind how you would tell your clients that the price has to increase... Only to immediately shy away from the conversation because you're not sure how to legally adjust pricing. Here's the thing inflation is predictable. It happens year after year, and as a business owner should be upping your packages and prices to reflect that.
But what many, many, many service providers are dealing with right now is the unforeseen massive spikes in cost of goods due to inflation, political happenings around the world. Which have been impacting cost beyond our control. We're also still dealing with COVID reschedules from 2020 and 2021, and those clients probably had your old 2019 or early 2020 pricing. So what's a business owner to do right now in our current situation? In this episode, I'm going to break down what clause you need to add to your contract, and how to correctly modify your existing contracts through addendums.

The Legal Paige Shownotes Episode Highlights * The clause you need to add to your contracts to help reflect current inflation that is costing your business. * How to communicate this clause with your current clients through addendums, and putting customer service first and top of mind. * How to adequately prepare for the increase in cost of goods and how, and when you should impute costs on your client or bear the cost yourself. * Why at TLP we suggest not increasing the amount you charge for travel in contracts, but mainly increasing amounts surrounding wholesale goods.

Worth Noting "I want you to have a clause in your contract on the ability to adjust pricing for customers. You need to be clear that you will only adjust pricing on costs of goods, not on gas, not on incidentals, so on and so forth. I hope you're catching my drift here. Be very clear in this clause and language in your contract. Be clear that you will notify them of changes to their original price quoted at least, 30 days in advance, 60 days in advance, etc. So that you can adequately place your order for the goods in advance, and so that your clients have the right to make modifications to their order." - Paige's advice on adjusting pricing on costs of goods in contracts.

"The US inflation rate right now has accelerated to 7.58%, which is the highest since 1982. That's something you could say to your clients. If they're rescheduled clients, inform them of other pricing adjustments you've made to your packages and that they've not been charged for those. Explaing how
clients who booked you at the end of 2020 into 2021, we're charged this amount so that they can see your just up-charging them a little bit. But that they are still getting a great deal compared to other clients that have booked recently." - Paige's advice explaining to current clients your reasoning for having to increase certain prices within the contract

"Be ready for your client to say no and be okay with that answer. As a party to the original contract, you have to realize that your client has a right to say no to future changes. But, also that if your client has the right to say no, then you can cancel the contract yourself."- Paige's advice on providing customer service first, but understanding either party can say no.

TLP Resources: * Purchase the TLP Adjusting Price Clause * Purchase TLP's Contract Addendum & Amendments for General Purposes

Find Contracts & Clauses in The Legal Paige Shop * The Legal Paige Shop

Join Our Free Facebook Community * The Legal Paige's Facebook Community

Don't do it! Over here at TLP we don't recommend changing your contract language, it's there for a specific reason. Except in limited circumstances, which I am going to share with you because at one point or another any our journey as a business owner you will run into these situations. This is a tough subject to navigate on your own, which is why I am giving you my legal advice if you were my client emailing me this very question. First thing I want you remember is don't panic... TLP is here to help.

The Legal Paige Shownotes Episode Highlights * What you should and shouldn't be taking out of your contract (I.E. nothing if possible). * How to read the room and figure out if; a) your client has lawyered up, and b) if you should seek out an attorney in your hometown as well. * My tips to still oblige your client but also to hold your ground, and not delete anything that could hurt you down the road. * Red flags to look our for in this situation as you navigate customer service, and deciding if this is even the client you should be working with. * Why clauses that deal with things like harassment, inclement of weather, safe working environment, and service specific clauses should never be removed.

Worth Noting "I want you to remember that good customer service does not equate to changing your contract. Don't let yourself fall into that trap. It's actually quite the opposite. If you let your clients dictate your working relationship with contract modifications before they even book you and they're finagling you into modifying some of your policies. Now, I think that's a huge, huge orange or red flag for them being challenging clients in the future. Now I say orange or red, because I think you'll know. You'll know after a couple of back and forth of communicating with this particular client or clients." - Paige's advice on customer service and changing your contract.

"For photographers, this would be like your delivery of images, clause, your editing clause, posing artistic style, reproduction clause, etc. For wedding planners, it's going to be, you know, like planning calls, how many trips you'll do back and forth from the venue, mood boards, when the client can or cannot change the theme or style of their wedding, you're catching my drift here. These are the specific clauses related to your business that you would never budge on." - Paige's advice on service specific clauses that should never be removed from a contract.

"If your client is reaching out to you saying, we're not going to agree to this indemnification clause, you can indemnify yourself for your own negligence, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. They are probably reading that clause wrong and didn't read it as only pertaining to third-party claims. So maybe just first point that out to them."- Paige's advice when a client doesn't agree to the Idemnification clause in your contract, and how to provide excellent customer service in this situation.

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We are discussing one of my favorite topics both business wise and legal wise: growing your team. And, specifically, this episode is for photographers or wedding industry professionals who are building out an associate team. Which is why I wanted to have Grace Troutman on the podcast! Grace is a photographer, but also a business coach!

Grace Troutman is a Midwest based wedding photographer and business educator. She also is the head of the Grace T Photo Team, and has a team of 3 associates who shoot under her brand. She started shooting about 6 years ago and has traveled to places including Iceland, Ireland, Hawaii, Colorado, California, and Oregon to shoot sessions and weddings. Grace lived in California when she was first starting her business, but Iowa called her home and she was determined to live a life of travel while still being close to family and friends. She is a wife and a mom to her 3 year old daughter and expecting their second addition in early July. The Legal Paige Shownotes Episode Highlights * Loaning equipment versus renting out your equipment to your associate photographers. * How to legally build your associate photography team, and some legal contracts you are going to want to have in your legal toolkit. * What legality insurance you will need as you build your team. * Grace's tips for becoming a mentor and leader to your associate team. * What to do when it's time to start building your associate team, and how to deal with team members during the process.

Worth Noting "I would say if you're thinking about hiring teammates and building a brand of associate photographers working under you. You need to start that process now, only because it does take a little bit. You can't just hire someone on and be like, okay, let's start booking. You have to touch on training as well as a few other things before they get started." - Grace's advice on when to start building your associate team.

"This is where I preach outsourcing, because you have to have the main checkpoint of where all of the images go through. So what happens after my associates get done shooting a wedding, they do not touch the images. They do not scroll through them. They do not do anything else. They hand the cards over, I go through everything and make sure everything's there. Then what I do is I have an editor that edits everything." - Grace's advice on keeping the editing style the same with an associate team.

"If you can keep your team local, I would honestly recommend that. But if you do have people flying for your weddings, you need to take a look at your contract, especially with your associate on. You have to think, what are they covering? What are you covering? Are all their meals like taking care of like, do you have to cover all of that stuff? Because then obviously your packages need to increase because you still need to profit. They still need to profit it. Especially if you're taking on all of those expenses."- Grace's advice for keeping your associate team local

Grace Troutman's Instagram * Grace Troutman's Instagram

Grace Troutman's Facebook Community

Grace Troutman's Facebook Community

Grace Troutman's Website

Grace Troutman's Website

The Legal Paige's Associate Photography Resources * The Legal Paige's Associate Photography Resources

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I thought it was time that I gave all of you service-based business owners a COVID update. This is a tough subject to talk about because, I feel like it's unending and we're all a little bit sick of it. But it's no secret that there are various popping up left and right. The threat of COVID is still here and is probably unfortunately here to stay. With that means more questions from clients.

The Legal Paige Shownotes Episode Highlights * What changed from previous TLP updates regarding COVID and contracts. * An in-depth look at the newest supreme court decision regarding the vaccine mandate for businesses. * A brief synopsis on what is OSHA. * COVID concerns your clients may have and how to best address them while still being legally legit. * My answer to common questions getting asked from various service-based business owners. Including rescheduling fees, variants, pushback from clients regarding clauses in relation to COVID, and more.

Worth Noting "First of all if you have used our covid addendums where it specifically stated a rescheduling deadline, and the bride let it lapse. Then you have no obligation to reschedule them or return their paid fee. Do not let these attorneys bully you. The addendum is not in our opinion an adhesion contract but even if it was it is enforceable in court. It is completely in your right to plant your feet in the mud and let thier attorney try to convince a Judge in small claims court that this contract addendum is invalid. Of course this is not legal advice as we are not your lawyer but we are just letting you know that this is something you can do." - Paige's advice on rescheduling deadlines.

"Since our last update we have also been introduced with a new variant Omicron. From what I am seeing and hearing this strain is looking less aggressive than Delta. And may be the sign of the beginning of the end for this virus. Even if that proves to be untrue we always want to hope right? With that being said we are still seeing events being postponed and many events still have COVID restrictions. So for now keep those clauses in even if you never need to use them. It is better to be prepared for the worst scenario with a lifesaver than without. " - Paige's advice if COVID clauses still need to be in contracts.

"A reasonable rescheduling fee can be anything from $100 to 30% of your fee. Here is how I look at this, you are giving them the benefit of rescheduling, and really anything under 30% will be more than reasonable in the eyes of a judge and hopefully a client. Where It may seem unreasonable in the eyes of a judge or even the client is if you go over that 50% mark. At that point it might be better to not allow rescheduling and ask for a new contract and retainer. This is a completely fine way of doing it! It's your company you get to make the rules."- Paige's advice when it comes to reasonable rescheduling fees.

The Legal Paige's COVID Resources * The Legal Paige's COVID Resource Roundup

Find Contracts & Clauses in The Legal Paige Shop * The Legal Paige Shop

Join Our Free Facebook Community * The Legal Paige's Facebook Community

If you're ready to file an LLC yourself and take the DIY approach, I want you to know as much as possible to help you prepare to file.
A Limited Liability Company (or an LLC), provides very similar protections as a corporation. But LLCs are easier, and much cheaper to form and run. It's a way for business owners to protect themselves from personal liability. It separates the personal liability from the business liability. The Legal Paige Podcast Shownotes Episode Highlights * An in-depth look on how to really start filing for your LLC, and why it's important to familiarize yourself with your home state's filing process. * What is a name reservation, and why it's very different from a trademark registration which is a different form of protection. * What is an effective date, and what to choose if you want to be an LLC right away. * A breakdown of what is registered agent, and what you could do if you're not comfortable leaving your home address listed. * Why different states may have larger filing fees, but I don't want this to deter you from filing. Because the benefits of forming an LLC outweigh the filing fee.

Worth Noting "You don't want your business assets and liabilities co-mingled with your personal assets. We've worked hard to create a savings account, 401ks, build a home for ourselves, and we don't want those to be interrupted or be at risk with the business that we're creating. Which is why an LLC essentially creates this entire bubble around your business."
- Paige on why forming an LLC and keeping your assets separate is important.

"You can't have a PO box here where your LLC receives official mail. So oftentimes business owners just choose to simply put themselves as registered agents and then they list their home physical address. Remember, this is public information, your LLC registration lives in a public area that people can search and access. So if you're not comfortable providing your home address for privacy reasons, you're going to need to find another registered agent in your home. And that is really easy to do."
- Paige on what is registered agent.

"Keep in mind that being an LLC owner has benefits, including being able to write off many, many business expenses. So keeping your funds separate allows you to keep track of expenses easier, which will ultimately help you write off more during tax season. Your accountant will thank you for this. You will thank yourself for this at the end of the year, when you have this business bank account all set up. Not only is it absolutely mandatory and necessary, legally speaking to keep your LLC actually an LLC, but it's also great for keeping track of your finance."
- Paige on why you need a business bank account.

Purchase The Legal Paige's DIY LLC Guides: * The Legal Paige's DIY LLC Registration Guides

Read More About Manager-Managed LLCs Versus Member-Managed LLCs

Read The Legal Paige's Manager-Managed LLCs Versus Member-Managed LLCs Blog

Find Contracts & Clauses in The Legal Paige Shop: * The Legal Paige Shop

Join Our Free Facebook Community: * The Legal Paige's Facebook Community

Adventure Elopement Photography has seen an explosion post pandemic, and really since 2020. More intimate weddings were on the rise, people opted for smaller weddings opposed to the bigger events we traditionally saw. This brought on a whole layer of legal situations that needed to be addressed. Nina Larsen Reed is joining us today, to really break down those sticky situations and how to best protect your Adventure Elopement Photography business Nina Larsen Reed is a Colorado-based elopement photographer and hiker chick. She grew up on a tiny island in Norway, moved to Boulder in 2010, fell in love with the sunny Rocky Mountains (and her now-husband), and never looked back. Now a mom to a baby girl, Nina specializes in tiny elopements close to home.
The Legal Paige Podcast Shownotes Episode Highlights: * An in-depth look on what to do when you show up to national park, only to find it's your clients and 20+ of their closest friends. * Why guest count is so important when you are visiting national parks. * Nina's take as an experienced photographer why permits are put in place in National parks. * Increased responsibility and planning that has occurred post pandemic. * Tips for protecting your business, as the industry continues to grow.

Worth Noting: "No one reads a contract, as frustrating as that is. If people are just excited to book and they scroll to the bottom when they sign and say that's fine. So there are other places where people can put that type of education too, such as location guides, even before that in the questionnaire. I have my couples fill out before that, so I can make them a location guide. And I cover questions like, do you want ceremony decor?"
- Nina Larsen Reed on Location Guides and Contracts.

"The number one thing I want you to know, is that people should be charging at least as much as they would for a traditional wedding. If not more, because if this episode has not driven home how much work is involved with this beyond showing up and taking photos."
- Nina Larsen Reed on What To Charge.

"If they show up with more people than what they have told me in advance, and that is against the rules of location, I will leave and they will not get a refund. They will not get any photos. I think the more clear you can make that, the more seriously people will take it. Because no one wants to show up and find out that they paid a lot of money for a wedding photographer who will walk away and not give them a single photo."
- Nina Larsen Reed on Handling Guest Counts That Exceed Location Rules.

Purchase The Adventure Elopement Contract: * The Legal Paige's Adventure Elopement Contract

Follow Nina: * Nina Larsen Reed's Instagram * Nina Larsen Reed's Website * Nina Larsen Reed's Facebook Page

Find Contracts & Clauses in The Legal Paige Shop: * The Legal Paige Shop

Join Our Free Facebook Community: * The Legal Paige's Facebook Community

What's the difference between 1099-MISC, 1099-K, and 1099-NEC Forms? Let's clear the confusion and understand what exactly each of these forms is needed and used for with the help of Brittney Suttle!

Brittney is anIndianapolis-based CPA, founder of Knies & Co, a virtual CPA firm, and Prosper Simply, an online financial course catalog for business owners. She joins us on The Legal Paige Podcast to talk all about 1099s. If you have questions regarding getting your 1099s prepared and ready for January, including updated tax laws, and the new $600 threshold for 1099Ks, this episode is for you.

Brittney's mission is to make money more approachable for women, and she passionately works to help female entrepreneurs get more out of their business (& life) through great money management & simple systems.

Episode Highlights: * How to properly prepare your 1099s and have them ready in January. * A full in-depth explanation on the different 1099s, including 1099-K's, NECs, and MISC. * Who needs to be sent a 1099, and who doesn't. * Updated tax laws, including how 1099s now work with third party payment processors like PayPal, Venmo, etc. * And Brittney's course that's going DIYing your 1099s so much easier!

The Legal Paige Podcast Shownotes Worth Noting: "A 1099-NEC stands for non-employee compensation and this is a newer form. So think back to two years ago, this form didn't exist. This for is really for your independent contractors, anyone who is providing a service for your business, they will get a 1099-NEC. For a majority of you listening, that's probably the form you are going to stick to."
- Brittney Suttle on the definition of a 1099-NEC form.

"A 1099K is not something you are going to have to file, but it might be something you receive. 1099 Ks are forms that third-party payment processors, which has visa like credit cards, American express, Venmo, Cash App, etc. Those processors have to send 1099Ks, for amounts paid to people for business income., So you don't have to fill out 1099 Ks, but you may receive it if you get paid above the limit that is set by the IRS via those third-party processors."
- Brittney Suttle on 1099Ks and when you will likely receive them and why.

"If you send a 1099 to someone that you shouldn't have, that's signaling to the IRS that they made more than they actually did. Again, this could cause a lot of headache for them because the IRS is going to come back and say we are applying this much more in taxes, fees, and penalties and all of this because you under-reported income. So if you catch that someone sent you a incorrect 1099, or you as the sender figure out that it was incorrectly sent or there's a mistake. You can always file a corrected form that will then get sent to the IRS, you also you provide it to the client and then it will get taken care of."
- Brittney Suttle, explaining what happens if you get sent an incorrect 1099 form or you sent out a form with a mistake.

Learn More About 1099s and The Legal Paige's Resources Page: * The Legal Paige's 1099 Resources

Follow Brittney: * Brittney Suttle's Instagram * Kines & Co's Website * Prosper Simply's Online Course Catalogue - Including Her 1099 Course

Find Contracts & Clauses in The Legal Paige Shop: * The Legal Paige Shop

Join Our Free Facebook Community: * The Legal Paige's Facebook Community

Taking time off is easier said than done, am I right?! I love my business. You love your business. We've poured our hearts and souls into them. Oftentimes though, we're so scared to take a vacation because we feel like things just can't run without us. Even though, as entrepreneurs, we actually need time to unplug. Taking that break is going to do us all a lot of good as the creative CEO of our business.

Episode Highlights: * How you can plan to actually take time off in 2022 * Why it's so important to actually put this time in your calendars and fully disconnect * As the business owner and CEO this is one of the most important things you can do for yourself and business (besides getting legally legit courtesy of The Legal Paige) * The difference between working vacations and personal vacation, and why you need both (I am a huge fan of scheduling both in my calendar) * Why I am giving you full permission to take time off over during the holidays

The Legal Paige Podcast Shownotes

Worth Noting: "I want you to plan one long weekend a quarter, if not one long weekend a month, that's like the ultimate goal in my opinion. But if you are feeling a little bit of pressure, that you can't take that much time off from your business. You really need the income, and you need to continue working on your business. I get that! You might be at a different place than others in their own entrepreneurial journey and that's ok."

"As you're strategically taking time off as a business owner, I also want you to think about seasons of business. So if you are in the wedding industry, for example, taking time off in the middle of a wedding season might not be the best idea. Taking long weekends is a really good idea or long periods of time during the week. Right? Because, we all work on the weekends in the wedding industry. Taking an actual Monday through Thursday as time off would be beneficial to you, but you are probably not going to be taking big trips during those times and taking weeks off at a time."

"As a business owner, the memories that you create, the personal experiences, and rest and relaxation are filling up your cup. When you take time off it's priceless, you can't put a price on that. I want you to have that in your life. You need work-life balance, you need vacations, and you need time. So just do it right now, and plan at least one to two in the next six months. We can't pour from an empty cup period."

The Legal Paige's Free Passive Income Guide: * How To Set Up Your Biz For A Profitable & Legal Passive Income Stream

Find Contracts & Clauses in The Legal Paige Shop:

The Legal Paige Shop

Join Our Free Facebook Community:

Join The Legal Paige's Facebook Community

Hope Taylor is a senior portrait and wedding photographer serving both Charleston and Savannah joins us on The Legal Paige Podcast. If you are ready to get organized for Q1, or every quarter for that matter, this episode is for you!

Hope began her business at 16 years old and decided as a senior in high school to pursue her business full time, instead of going to college. Eight years later, she teaches photographers and small business owners how to grow their business quickly and strategically. I knew she was the expert to have on the show!

Episode Highlights: * How to plan for Q1 the right way * Hope's go-to resources to help make quarterly and yearly planning more fun * Why planning is going to really help you see both seasons of your life (busy in business, and busy in your personal life) and help you integrate them together * The ROI planning is always going to give you in life and business * And Hope's entire process from start to finish when she is sitting down to plan

The Legal Paige Podcast Shownotes

Follow Hope: * Hope Taylor's Instagram * Hope Taylor's Website * Hope Taylor's YouTube Channel

Quarterly Planning Calendars Hope Uses: * Kat Schmoyer's Printable Calendars

Find Contracts & Clauses in The Legal Paige Shop:

The Legal Paige Shop

Join Our Free Facebook Community:

Join The Legal Paige's Facebook Community

Atiya Brown aka The Savvy Accountant, a CPA, CA and a Certified Financial Educator Instructor, joins us on The Legal Paige Podcast. If you are looking to get some answers to all "end of the year tax questions", stay tuned because this episode is for you!

Atiya is dually licensed in both Canada and the USA as a Certified Public Accountant, with a 16 years experience in the accounting/finance world.

Episode Highlights: * How to get your ducks in a row for the end of the year * What business tax deductions you might be overlooking * Questions to ask yourself to help determine if it's a valid deduction for your business * Why December is typically too late to try to tax plan * Of course, we touch on 1099K's * And why we want you to be proactive now when it comes to taxes and outsourcing help, versus being reactive when or if an audit happened

The Legal Paige Podcast Shownotes Free Guide from The Legal Paige: * Get The Legal Paige's Free Business Structure Guide

Find Contracts & Clauses in The Legal Paige Shop:

The Legal Paige Shop

Follow The Legal Paige:

Join The Legal Paige's Facebook Community
The Legal Paige On Instagram
The Legal Paige On YouTube

Follow Atiya: * Atiya Brown's Instagram * Atiya Brown's Website

Today, CPA Amy Northard and I are talking all about gifting as a business owner, and what is a tax deductible.

The Legal Paige Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/602195700208827

The Legal Paige On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thelegalpaige/

The Legal Paige Podcast Shownotes:
https://thelegalpaige.com/blogs/podcasts/episode-114-gifting-as-a-business-owner-what-is-and-is-not-tax-deductible-with-cpa-amy-northard

Today I am talking all aboutBlack Friday week and how to approach the sales as a business owner. But, first of all, happy Black Friday week! If you are a business owner running a sale, I hope it's going smooth with lots of sales rolling in!

l Paige Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/602195700208827

The Legal Paige On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thelegalpaige/

The Legal Paige Podcast Shownotes:
https://thelegalpaige.com/blogs/podcasts/episode-113-how-to-approach-black-friday-sales-as-a-business-owner

Today, I am talking all about The Legal Paige, and what sets our template contracts apart from others!

The Legal Paige Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/602195700208827

The Legal Paige On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thelegalpaige/

The Legal Paige Podcast Shownotes:
https://thelegalpaige.com/blogs/podcasts/episode-112-what-sets-tlp-contracts-apart-from-other-online-contract-shops

Today's episode is all about custom contracts versus template contracts! Because the thing is, there's a huge difference between the two.

The Legal Paige Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/602195700208827

The Legal Paige On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thelegalpaige/

The Legal Paige Podcast Shownotes:
https://thelegalpaige.com/blogs/podcasts/when-you-need-a-custom-contract-versus-a-template-contract

Today I am putting on my legal hat, and chatting about how I suggest that you send your contracts to your clients correctly via email or using your online client management system.

The Legal Paige Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/602195700208827

The Legal Paige On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thelegalpaige/

The Legal Paige Podcast Shownotes:
https://thelegalpaige.com/blogs/podcasts/episode-110-how-to-correctly-send-contracts-to-clients-via-email

Today, I am sharing some spooky, scary stories as we are a few days out from Halloween, and these horror stories are the scariest of all.... All about what you want to avoid in BUSINESS!

The Legal Paige Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/602195700208827

The Legal Paige On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thelegalpaige/

The Legal Paige Podcast Shownotes:
https://thelegalpaige.com/blogs/podcasts/episode-109-business-horror-stories-to-avoid-at-all-costs

Today I am sharing some insight into the words deposit and retainer, and if retainers are really non-refundable.

The Legal Paige Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/602195700208827

The Legal Paige On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thelegalpaige/

The Legal Paige Podcast Shownotes:
https://thelegalpaige.com/blogs/podcasts/episode-108-are-retainers-really-non-refundable

Today we are in full on baby prep mode! This is a conversation that I've been having a little bit online and of course, seeing from other mompreneurs as well. But I think it's important to keep sharing about this.

The Legal Paige Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/602195700208827

The Legal Paige On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thelegalpaige/

The Legal Paige Podcast Shownotes:
https://thelegalpaige.com/blogs/podcasts/episode-107-first-time-mompreneur-how-im-prepping

In today's episode I am talking all about setting up your education budget for 2022, and why it's so important to continually invest in yourself!

The Legal Paige Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/602195700208827

The Legal Paige On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thelegalpaige/

The Legal Paige Podcast Shownotes:
https://thelegalpaige.com/blogs/podcasts/episode-106-how-to-spend-your-education-budget-in-2022

I am talking about the five people you should surround yourself with as a business owner and a person. I'm putting on my big sister Paige hat for this episode, because I truly believe this is going to elevate not only your business life, but your personal life as well.

The Legal Paige Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/602195700208827

The Legal Paige On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thelegalpaige/

The Legal Paige Podcast Shownotes:
https://thelegalpaige.com/blogs/podcasts/episode-105-the-5-people-you-should-surround-yourself-with-as-a-business-owner

Business coach and strategist Laylee Emadi is joining us on the podcast to talk all about coaching, online offerings, and how to join the education community!

The Legal Paige Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/602195700208827

The Legal Paige On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thelegalpaige/

The Legal Paige Podcast Shownotes:
https://thelegalpaige.com/blogs/podcasts/episode-104-coaching-and-online-offerings-with-laylee-emadi

I am continuing with our "theme" of passive income. As you implement the passive income revenue stream to your business, you need to make sure that you're still doing this in a legally legit way.

The Legal Paige Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/602195700208827

The Legal Paige On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thelegalpaige/

The Legal Paige Podcast Shownotes:
https://thelegalpaige.com/blogs/podcasts/episode-103-understanding-the-contracts-you-need-with-passive-income

We are talking all about passive income today. I am sharing my tips on the best ways to implement this into your business today, and build that wealth together by not trading our time for money.

The Legal Paige Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/602195700208827

The Legal Paige On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thelegalpaige/

The Legal Paige Podcast Shownotes:
https://thelegalpaige.com/blogs/podcasts/episode-102-the-best-ways-to-implement-passive-income

Megan Martin is joining us on the podcast to talk all about setting up your online shop quickly, to start selling digital products.

The Legal Paige Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/602195700208827

The Legal Paige On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thelegalpaige/

The Legal Paige Podcast Shownotes:
https://thelegalpaige.com/blogs/podcasts/episode-101-how-to-quickly-set-up-shop-on-your-website-to-start-selling-digital-products-with-megan-martin

I am celebrating a massive milestone with you, it's episode 100! I thought it would be really appropriate to have reflection episode, and look back at the past 99!

The Legal Paige Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/602195700208827

The Legal Paige On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thelegalpaige/

The Legal Paige Podcast Shownotes:
https://thelegalpaige.com/blogs/podcasts/episode-100-celebrating-100-episodes

A necessary COVID update discussing how to best prepare for the 4th wave, vaccine requirements, cancellations, potential restrictions, etc.

The Legal Paige Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/602195700208827

The Legal Paige On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thelegalpaige/

The Legal Paige Podcast Shownotes:
https://thelegalpaige.com/blogs/podcasts/episode-99-covid-update-how-to-best-prepare-for-the-4th-wave-vaccine-requirements-cancellations-potential-restrictions-and-more

Learn about legally hiring an associate photographer and ensuring that you basically are crossing all your T's and dotting all your I's.

The Legal Paige Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/602195700208827

The Legal Paige On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thelegalpaige/

The Legal Paige Podcast Shownotes: https://thelegalpaige.com/blogs/podcasts/episode-98-how-to-legally-hire-an-associate-photographer

Learn more about the backend of my business and in particular, my business's evolution of task management. For those of you out there who are struggling with task management like I have for many years, this episode is for you!

The Legal Paige Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/602195700208827

The Legal Paige On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thelegalpaige/

The Legal Paige Podcast Shownotes: https://thelegalpaige.com/blogs/podcasts/episode-97-my-business-evolution-of-task-management

Want to learn more about makeup artistry and what you need to know to be legally legit as a makeup artist in the wedding and event industry?! I sit down with makeup artist, Erin Nay, to talk about how to best set up your makeup business for success.

The Legal Paige Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/602195700208827

The Legal Paige On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thelegalpaige/

The Legal Paige Podcast Shownotes: https://thelegalpaige.com/blogs/podcasts/episode-96-makeup-artistry-and-legalities-with-erin-nay

I am sharing my five tips to ensure you're protecting your brand.

The Legal Paige Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/602195700208827

The Legal Paige On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thelegalpaige/

The Legal Paige Podcast Shownotes: https://thelegalpaige.com/blogs/podcasts/episode-95-5-tips-to-ensure-youre-protecting-your-brand

Learn all about team building, how to hire, manage, and onboard specifically a remote team.

The Legal Paige Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/602195700208827

The Legal Paige On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thelegalpaige/

The Legal Paige Podcast Shownotes:
https://thelegalpaige.com/blogs/podcasts/episode-94-hire-manage-and-onboard-a-remote-team

I have The Legal Paige's copywriter Ana Woods on today! We are going to be talking very candidly in this episode all about utilizing copywriters in your business!

The Legal Paige Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/602195700208827

The Legal Paige On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thelegalpaige/

The Legal Paige Podcast Shownotes: https://thelegalpaige.com/blogs/podcasts/episode-93-utilizing-a-copywriter-for-your-business

This is definitely not a legal heavy episode and more entrepreneurial advice. I am talking all about letting go of control as a business owner.

The Legal Paige Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/602195700208827

The Legal Paige On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thelegalpaige/

The Legal Paige Podcast Shownotes:
https://thelegalpaige.com/blogs/podcasts/episode-92-letting-go-of-control-are-you-really-the-only-one-who-can-do-that

I am answering questions from Facebook including COVID-19, vaccinations, contract clauses, and so much more! If you are not a part of The Legal Paige Facebook Community and you are a small business owner... I highly suggest that you join.

The Legal Paige Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/602195700208827

The Legal Paige On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thelegalpaige/

The Legal Paige Podcast Shownotes:
https://thelegalpaige.com/blogs/podcasts/episode-91-legal-q-and-a-from-our-facebok-group

Today is all about what I learned in six weeks off social media.

The Legal Paige Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/602195700208827

The Legal Paige On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thelegalpaige/

The Legal Paige Podcast Shownotes:
https://thelegalpaige.com/blogs/podcasts/episode-90-what-i-learned-in-6-weeks-off-social-media

I am sitting down with bridal stylist and educator Renee Marie, and we are talking about the sticky legal situations you're going to want to avoid as a bridal stylist.

The Legal Paige Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/602195700208827

The Legal Paige On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thelegalpaige/

The Legal Paige Podcast Shownotes:
https://thelegalpaige.com/blogs/podcasts/episode-89-sticky-legal-situations-to-avoid-as-a-bridal-stylist

I had you ask me anything (non-legal related) and shared those answers in today's episode! I answer everything from starting my photography business, law school questions, and of course I answer questions about my growing family!

The Legal Paige Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/602195700208827

The Legal Paige On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thelegalpaige/

The Legal Paige Podcast Shownotes:
https://thelegalpaige.com/blogs/podcasts/episode-88-ask-paige-anything

Are contract templates worth it? Well, my answer is in the bulk of this episode. So let's just get to it.

The Legal Paige Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/602195700208827

The Legal Paige On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thelegalpaige/

The Legal Paige Podcast Shownotes:
https://thelegalpaige.com/blogs/podcasts/episode-87-are-contract-templates-really-worth-it

I am going to talk about the most overlooked contracts. As a business owner, I want you to start adding certain contracts to your legal toolkit... So let's dive in!

The Legal Paige Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/602195700208827

The Legal Paige On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thelegalpaige/

The Legal Paige Podcast Shownotes:
https://thelegalpaige.com/blogs/podcasts/episode-86-the-most-overlooked-contracts

I am answering my most popular question... what order should the clauses be in my contract.

The Legal Paige Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/602195700208827

The Legal Paige On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thelegalpaige/

The Legal Paige Podcast Shownotes:
https://thelegalpaige.com/blogs/podcasts/episode-85-how-to-order-the-clauses-in-your-contract

I am sharing a candid conversation with you all about why we need to stop being scared to pivot in our lives, and most importantly, pivot in our businesses!!

The Legal Paige Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/602195700208827

The Legal Paige On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thelegalpaige/

The Legal Paige Podcast Shownotes: https://thelegalpaige.com/blogs/podcasts/episode-84-stop-being-scared-to-pivot

Photographer Ben Ramos and I discuss why we need to stop shying away from naming our price as service professionals.

The Legal Paige Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/602195700208827

The Legal Paige On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thelegalpaige/

The Legal Paige Podcast Shownotes:
https://thelegalpaige.com/blogs/podcasts/episode-83-stop-being-afraid-to-name-your-price-with-ben-ramos

Today I am updating episode 10 from the vault, all about independent contractors versus employees.

The Legal Paige Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/602195700208827

The Legal Paige On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thelegalpaige/

The Legal Paige Podcast Shownotes:
https://thelegalpaige.com/blogs/podcasts/episode-82-independent-contractors-vs-employees-update

Podcast producer Haylee Gaffin and I talk all about the sticky legal situations to avoid in your podcast.

The Legal Paige Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/602195700208827

The Legal Paige On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thelegalpaige/

The Legal Paige Podcast Shownotes:
https://thelegalpaige.com/blogs/podcasts/episode-81-podcast-legalities-with-haylee-gaffin

Introducing the new Venmo Business Profile. I am sharing how you can set it up today, and start to legally accept payments!

The Legal Paige Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/602195700208827

The Legal Paige On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thelegalpaige/

The Legal Paige Podcast Shownotes: https://thelegalpaige.com/blogs/blog/episode-80-the-venmo-business-profile-and-how-to-use-it-legally

Kat Schmoyer and I talk all about planning and executing conferences during a global pandemic.

The Legal Paige Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/602195700208827

The Legal Paige On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thelegalpaige/

The Legal Paige Podcast Shownotes: https://thelegalpaige.com/blogs/podcasts/episode-79-conferences-and-events-post-covid-with-kat-schmoyer

Today's episode is all about getting you prepared for tax season and making sure you are deducting things the right way so you are legally legit.

Become a TLP Insider HERE.

In today's episode of The Legal Paige Podcast, I am diving deep into S corporations and with the upcoming tax season that we're having, it's really important to understand the benefits of S corporations prior to March 15th, because that's the deadline to file for 2021.

Download Your Free Business Structure Guide!

Welcome to this episode of The Legal Paige Podcast. Now today's episode is all about business entities. Specifically, we're only going to be talking about LLCs and limited liability companies with the upcoming tax season, impending and looming over us. It's really not that scary. I promise! But the one thing to know is it's time to get your ducks in a row and learn more about how an LLC and taxes work together.

Download Your Free Business Structure Guide!

Welcome back to another episode of The Legal Paige Podcast! Today I have Brandee Gaar joining us. Brandee is a luxury event planner, thought Leader, educational speaker and host of the "She Who Dares" podcast. Brandee and I will be discussing all about rescheduling fees as a full service planner.

Welcome back to another episode of The Legal Paige Podcast! Today I am sharing all about Force Majeure. This has been a question asked frequently over in The Legal Paige Facebook Community. Are we in Force Majeure? What happens if there was another shutdown? I am answering all of that and so much more!

Welcome back to another episode of The Legal Paige Podcast! Today I am diving into a topic that is asked extensively in the Legal Paige Facebook Group. Rescheduling fees aren’t one of those easy, cut-and-dry issues. In fact, they fully depend on your business, your pricing, and your policies. With that being said, I CAN equip you with some solid legal information surrounding reschedulings and the options available to you. Knowledge is power and after listening to this podcast, you’ll walk away with confidence in your decision to charge a rescheduling fee or not. Ready? Let’s dig in...

In today's episode of The Legal Paige Podcast, I am talking all about COVID-19, policies you need to have in place moving into 2021, and how to update existing policies to make sure you are legally legit!

In today’s episode of The Legal Paige Podcast, I am going to give you a little pep talk about how you can step into your role as a CEO and build a business that lasts! I’ve been doing this whole business thing as a solo entrepreneur for the last 8 years, and I’ve learned the hard way about stepping up as a CEO and then falling down the stairs super fast because I wasn’t fully prepared to actually be a CEO.

Become a TLP Insider - bit.ly/tlpinsider

Welcome to this episode of The Legal Paige podcast. In today’s episode, I want to dive into the three big things I wish someone more experienced and wiser would have put in my head as the mistakes I should steer away from or acknowledge exist in my role as the CEO of my business. Have you become a TLP Insider yet? Join here - tlpinsider.com

In today’s episode, I am getting right into the number one thing you need to BEFORE you book another client! I’m sure you’re over there thinking that it definitely has to do with something legal-related… and you’d be right my friend! It's all about ensuring that backend of your business that's… I know I know… not so fun to work on…. Is squared away!

In today's episode, I am sharing my thoughts with you as business owners and really educate you on what permits you need inside National Parks as a lawyer who works with countless photographers and videographers on matters just like this one. If you follow me on social media you know this is a topic I discussed in length over the past weekend.

In today’s episode I am talking all about flat fee retainers and after my facebook lives and market research updating all of you, and of course how you can add in flat fee retainers the legal way!

Today's episode I am sitting down with Casey Handy-Smith, an entertainment lawyer who helps influencers and creatives protect their brands with contracts.

I am going to go over kind of a controversial topic, at least in the wedding and event industry that is specific to mainly photographer, and that is flat fee retainers. All of you photographers, videographers florists, DJs, caterers, hair, and makeup providers, get ready to listen in about why percentage retainers are no longer the way to go.

I am sitting down with my legal team from The Legal Paige, Melissa and Taiyler. We are getting into a candid conversation about another legal lady that we are very fond of and sadden to hear of her passing Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who is better known as RBG or the notorious RBG. We also discuss the importance of using your right to vote and how elections really shape the cities that we live in, our states, and the whole of our country.

Today I am sitting down with Maddie Mae of Adventure Instead, Maddie is an adventurous elopement photographer based in Colorado with her photography business Adventure Instead, and she educates elopement photographers across the country and world through her Adventure Instead Academy. We are talking all things elopement, the leave no trace principle, and how important it is to be legally protected with a leave no trace clause in your contract as an adventure photographer.

Today is all about how COVID has really changed since March and what you need to know specifically. Typically, if you are a wedding or an event and industry professional, that's a biggie for all of us dealing with this.

Today's episode is all about The Legal Paige rebrand process. My thoughts on how and why I decided to rebrand, how important rebranding is to grow your business and grow as an entrepreneur.

This episode is going to be a little bit different than the others because it is a recording of the HoneyBook Rising Tide webinar that I did with host Natalie Franke. We jumped on this webinar and had over a thousand people tune in.

Today's episode is all about taxes and what small business owners need to know. Now, more than ever during this current season we are in and in the future after Covid-19. I am very excited to welcome Wendy Barlin to the show today as our guest expert, Wendy helps digital entrepreneurs minimize their taxes and increase their profits.

Today I am going over how to use your contract addendums, rescheduling contract, and the cancelation contract. We are going over serving your clients in this time, how to send each individual contract, and how to utilize some of the CRM systems with these new contracts.

I am back with a solo episode today and talking all about what small business owners like yourself need to think about as each individual state starts the re-opening process.

This has been a topic that has been at the forefront of my mind as well as so many others in our TLP community as COVID-19 and this season has progressed. As you listen to today's episode please also take a look into your state-specific guidelines as well.

Today I am going over something that has been on everyone's mind in the small business world and TLP Community... As well as my own. What sort of refund are you legally obligated to give to your clients. If rescheduling isn't an option and they want to cancel. How do you issue them a refund and what should that amount be?

I wanted to sit down and discuss something that has been at the forefront of everyone's minds right now: economic relief during COVID- 19. Getting knowledge from an expert in financial planning Dominique Broadway founder of Finances DE-MYS-TI-FIED on what exactly the SBA Loans are. What the Paycheck Protection Program is and who can apply for it. What is the EIDL Loans and the $10,000.00 grant associated with that? As well as all the burning questions our TLP community had on each of these loans and the main one... when they can expect to receive the assistance.

I wanted to do a little bit of a different kind of chat this week, so I reached out several event industry professionals to see how these vendors are handling and navigating Covid-19 situations. It was really great to hear how each of these vendors are going above and beyond with their customer service, how their working on utilizing their existing contract language and so much more. So join us as we hear from wedding planners, florists, DJs, photographers, and videographers!

This episode is all about why you need a LEGIT contract, the importance of your contracts including certain clauses, clauses to take an extra look at, the difference between The Legal Paige contracts and others out there, how to update your existing contracts in the midst of Covid-19, and much more!

Join Paige for a candid discussion about Covid-19, how it's effecting small businesses and what steps you as a small business owner can take to protect yourself.

Public life in America is slowly grinding to a halt. All major sports events are shut down, schools are closed, public gatherings and events are getting cancelled, travel is becoming more and more restrictive, and our normal way of life is going to change here for the next few weeks. This entire week has been difficult. It’s been stressful. People are living in fear and panic. They often feel paralyzed and don't know how to deal with these challenges as business owners. So I wanted to sit down with my friend Caroline Fox, the owner of Engaged Legal, to discuss the virus, how it's effecting business owners, contracts, insurance policies, cancellations, financial situations, etc.

Look, I know a lot of people are freaking out over the corona virus for one reason or another. This podcast episode is NOT about my personal or political feelings whatsoever, and it shouldn’t be about yours either. The main thing to know at this point is that even if YOU are not freaking out about it, others are. It's important, if not vital, to figure out how YOU are making sure your business is protected during this time. I’m going over this and more about the specifics you NEED to have outlined in your client contracts in this episode.

Today we’re going to be talking about a topic I’ve heard WAY to much about; using Venmo for your business transactions. Hint, you’re not supposed to be doing it. Not only does this use violate Venmo’s terms and conditions, it also can put you at legal risk. Make sure to stay tuned because I want you all to make sure you’re protecting yourselves and your businesses!

Join The Legal Paige to chat ALL about what needs to happen to your contract if someone besides the couple pays; aka a third party payor. When you add in a third party payor, your contract needs to change so that you can ensure that your clients are still the clients you’re serving on the day-of the event, but also that the payment and fees portion of your contract is all in the hands of your third party payer.

Join Paige, and special guest Jaine Kershner, for a discussion about moving from a corporate nine to five job to being a full time entrepreneur.

On today's episode I'm sharing with you my 2019 year in review. I put together this review episode not only for you all to hear about how my first year in business went, but also as a personal reminder to myself about all the ups and downs that I went through, and how at the end of the year it turned out beautifully. 2019 was interesting, emotional, exciting beyond my wildest dreams, challenging, and overall full of some of the THE BIGGEST LEARNING LESSONS of my life.

Join The Legal Paige as she sits down with San Diego based attorney Braden Drake, to chat all about the new independent contractor law, AB5, that went into effect January 1, 2020.

Join us today with guest newborn photographer Jenni Maroney! Jenni shares with us her unique style of photographing natural, unposed newborns and chats about The Legal Paige Newborn Photography Contract.

Today we’re going to be discussing an important tool for all you business owners out there; Independent Contractor Agreements. These are super important to have for a variety of reasons, and you want to make sure ANY kind of hiring agreement you have is protecting you and your business.

So many of you loved last week’s episode on Influencer Responsibility, so this week AS PROMISED, we’re doing a Q & A! Join us as we answer more of your legal questions surrounding influencers and giveaways on social media.

Influencer responsibility is an incredibly interesting topic to discuss because we all follow social media accounts that have thousands, if not millions of followers, and as consumers of social media its good to know the legalities behind this type of work. Our online world now actually allows being an influencer to be a full time job, and since the world of "influencers" is so new, there is not a lot of regulations or law enforcing the conduct for these accounts. After my Instagram stories went viral at the end of December 2019, this episode goes over what all went down, my reactions to it, and my thoughts on how influencers can do better next time and how consumers can play an active role in changing laws surrounding online giveaways.

Join Paige as she talks ALL about one of her favorite forms of protecting intellectual property: Trademarks! We’ll cover what exactly Trademarks are, what they cover and how YOU as a business owner can use them to protect yourself.

Today I'm going to talk about something a little morbid and not so sexy but super important to all you business owners out there; preparing for unexpected life situations. From digital directives, to important clauses to have in your contracts, I'm going over everything you need to think about to protect yourself and your business assets.

Today's episode is all about making sure your giveaways are legit! Giveaways are a great way to generate new followers and get people excited about your business and offers, especially during the holiday season, but do you know how to run a legal giveaway? It’s definitely easier than you think.

Get ready to dive in and hear all about it on today's episode!

Are you a photographer who hosts mini sessions for your clients?! We're going over the ins-and-outs of mini sessions in this episode from choosing the dates and themes, to promoting them effectively, to upselling additional photos and prints, to ensuring your mini session contract is legit and protects you. Join Paige as she tells you all her best mini session tips and tricks.

In this episode I discuss why it's important to organize all the clauses in your contract (which are the small paragraphs that relate to a specific point). From listing the parties to the contract at the beginning, to setting the duration and time period (aka the contract stops at some point), to ensuring your specific clauses are at the top, to the miscellaneous clauses you should have at the bottom, this episode will help you get your contract clauses in the correct order!

Do you know the difference between filing a DBA versus filing a LLC?! While each state may vary a teeny bit, its virtually the same steps to register online as either a Doing Business As or register as an official business entity through filing articles of incorporation to become a LLC.

Did you know that you're required by law to have a Privacy Policy on your website if you're collecting any type of user's personal information? Do you know how Terms & Conditions can save you in regards to copyright infringement and refund requests? Do you know where to put them on your website? Episode 33 is here and I'm going over all the ins-and-outs of Privacy Policies and Terms & Conditions on your business website.

Have you thought about hiring a life coach, but you weren’t quite sure what to expect? Episode 32 is here and it is for YOU!! Alexandra Kaval is certified professional life coach and the founder of Grace Space Christian Coaching where She provides an inspirational and judgement free space for women to grow. A space where you can transform from overwhelmed to overjoyed.

Today, she is here to tell you ALL the things about what a life coach can bring to your life, why you need a plan for your life and what to expect when working with a life coach. Want more? Listen now!

Want to start a wedding venue? Episode 31 is here and it is for YOU!! Kinsey Roberts is a wedding venue owner, podcast host and podcast educator for women entrepreneurs. She is here to tell you ALL the things about the beginning stages of venue ownership by guiding you through market research, construction and her personal favorite part of any business: organization structure, marketing and systems. She loves sharing her personal journey of starting a wedding venue on her family’s private ranch in Colorado. Want more? Tune in today!

I have learned so much from my friend Libby Rothschild who is a business coach and social media marketing expert. Her work inspires female registered dietitians to attract and convert leads in their virtual private practice. She explains in this episode her online sales process on Instagram specifically in regards to how to define how you will make profit, how to setup your link in bio to SELL, how to niche down your message, and MORE! You've got to tune in to this episode!

Episode 29: I'm chatting with Alisha Crossley all about her incredible service offering: Preview & Prosecco. Alisha is a recovering English teacher turned fine art wedding photographer and is the owner of Alisha Crossley Photography. With a background in literary arts, Alisha's love for storytelling is fully embraced behind the camera as she lovingly directs her subjects. Alisha has heart for sharing methods of success with fellow photographers and can’t wait to tell you all about Preview & Prosecco and how adding a new service into your business to serve your clients can add to your bottom line!

Today I am talking to Youtube Guru Trena Little who helps creative business owners find the confidence to be on video. She believes every business owner deserves to be the face of their business so she provides them support by teaching the tech, mindset, and strategy on how to use video content to grow your business. Join our conversations NOW!

Hello hello everyone! I have Beck Baker here with me today! She is owner and planner at Becky's Brides and is going to talk to you all about how she started her wedding planning business from the ground up. Becky has a BS in Accounting and started her career in the corporate accounting world. Not long after that, she knew that accounting wasn't the right t for her. After helping some friends and co-workers plan their weddings, she officially launched Becky's Brides in 2011. Becky's Brides plans flawless, Southern weddings in Birmingham, AL and beyond. In addition to planning weddings, she is passionate about helping other women creative business owners launch and grow successful businesses. Most importantly, she is a wife to her college sweetheart and new mom to a 10-month-old baby girl.

Hey friend! I going to tell you all about the essential contracts that you need for your small and growing business. As your business grows you are definitely going to need to implement more and more contracts! With that being said, I just want to tell you a little bit more about why it is so important and such a hot topic right now!!

I’m chatting about service industry contracts and what you really need to know about your contracts to ensure you're saving yourself tons of headache in the future. This episode goes over the main contract principles you need to know that make up a valid contract such as offer, acceptance, consideration, and why you need to "get it in writing". Don't sit around wondering anymore whether your client contract will actually hold up in court.

Drumroll Please!! Stephanie Skryzowski is a Chief Financial Officer who helps purpose-driven leaders better understand and use their numbers to make smart decisions for their business. She is the Founder and CEO of 100 Degrees Consulting which works with clients around the globe to help them grow their bottom line and their impact. She is here to help you do that so you can build your business while sustaining your way of life.

Hello everyone! I am excited to introduce to you guys my friend Edrina J. Calderon who is the owner and accountant of Accounting by Edrina, LLC. She is here to talk all about bookkeeping. What is it? Why do people need to know about it? Why is it super important for us as business owners? Let’s be honest, most of us are just not that good at it.. Edrina is just a true joy, a total giver and I have loved having her as part of my online mastermind. Let’s dive into Bookkeeping 101!

Today's episode is going to be a little different. I'm not going to talk about legal stuff and I'm not interviewing any guests. I am actually talking all about my photography business and a little reflection on my wedding season for 2019. I recently just ended my wedding season in the middle of July because I only took on a select number of weddings this year and I just want to kind of chat with you about my experiences, a few things in lessons that I've learned, and just let you know where Paige Marie Photography is at right now. So with that being said, let's get into this episode.

Hello, Episode 21! Iffy Ibekwe (ee-beck-way) helps intentional women prepare effective wills, trusts, and legal documents so that their families are protected in the event of death or an unexpected emergency. She is passionate about what she does. Her life has been transformed by helping women protect their families, just in case. Today, she is here with me to share her passions with you and discuss how estate planning is for you too!

Marie Wold is a 24 year-old wellness coach, lifestyle influencer, and entrepreneur whose mission is to educate and empower women to become their best selves. As a business school graduate, she melds her passion for entrepreneurship with her heart for service every day and has grown her business to multiple six-figures through strategic scaling and 100% organic marketing. Today, she is sharing exactly how she creates profit with purpose!

Calling all business owners! Whether you run a business online or have set up shop this episode is for you! My guest today is my dear friend and fellow Montana lady, Tiffany Williams, with Tiffany Williams Photography. She is talking all about her transition from her online business that provided online digital photo services and galleries, to a brick and mortar studio environment. Thus, she went from what most photographers know as a “shoot and share concept” (giving all high-resolution digitals) to an “in-person print sales” concept. She’s here to share her experience and tips with you!

Hello hello Legal Paigers! We have talked about how to build a team for your biz so now it’s time to talk about how that team works together successfully... #teamworkmakesthedreamwork. Today, I have not one but TWO special guests who want to share their teamwork success with you. Joshua and Kariss Farris are a husband and wife wedding and corporate photography team who capture special moments all around the country and across the world. They’ve turned their passion into their profession with Pharris Photos + Philms! I’m just obsessed with these two! They’ve got all kinds of good information about how to run a successful business as a husband-wife duo, so let’s learn how their teamwork makes their dream work! It’s time to “get it done” with these two and dive in.

Today, we have an amazingly talented guest speaker, Kylee Ann with Kylee Ann Studios! Her team is based in Northern Utah and she helps other photographers and creative entrepreneurs create thriving businesses. When she's not shooting, scheduling, editing, blogging, being the boss, etc, you can find her on adventures with her three babies or catching up on last nights tv in yesterday’s clothes.

In this episode, Kylee talks all about what building an associate team was like, her training approach for new hires, tips of letting go of control and MORE! We can’t wait to have you tune in!

Have you heard the saying that 80% of results come from 20% of the action? Well, that is a motto that I live by in my business and it has given me great results! I believe that this motto is the success tool for any entrepreneur and once you learn about which 20% of actions drive 80% of the outcomes, it will be a game changer for you and YOUR business! Lets dive in!

Today’s episode is something special!!

I am talking all masterminds……. and about my online mastermind. I have three ladies who participated in it here to help me tell you all about it! I am so excited to tell you all about running my first mastermind and how proud I am of the ladies that were a part of it. I could honestly talk all day about it… but the reality is it’s not the same as actually hearing from a few of the ladies themselves. Over the past week, my team and I have reached out and asked a handful of them to record a little blurb about their mastermind experience.

Today on the show I am SO excited to welcome not one but three guests. BOOMSHAKALAKA. Let’s say hello to Rebekah Reed, Kristen Gillen, and Edrina Calderon! These ladies are the definition of boss babes and I couldn’t be more excited to have them on board. Can you guess how they are all connected??

Join the conversation NOW!

Now today is another one of my quick business tips and I am specifically talking about mentors because we all have them and we all use them, but it's important to find the right one for you, but to do so you have to be introspective and you have to think about what you want first and then you pair that with someone that can lead you the best way possible. So, without further ado, let's get into this mentorship discussion friends!!!

Hey hey!! Today's episode is a continuation of our biz talk from last week and is all about the implementation strategy I use when I’m working on creating a product, launching something, or really doing anything business related. People always ask me how I have time for things and how I do it all. Well, I don’t do it all, let's get that straight. But I do a lot of things and do them well. I’ve got a plan each time I want to implement something and make sure its all planned out, that I have time, that I have the budget, and all my ducks are in a row. So this episode is literally my step by step process to implementation. Let's dive right in.

Happy Monday friends! The past dozen episodes I’ve talked primarily about legal concepts that you as an entrepreneur should know and should be utilizing in your business. BUT, I also am a business coach for photographers, wedding industry professionals, and creatives. Today is my first episode all about business and to start our journey I’m going wayyyy back to the beginning of when I started my own photography biz 8 years ago and what that looked like. We are talking about what drives me forward- my own biz motto “Find the Niche, Fill the Niche, and Kill the Niche” and how it can be implemented in your own business. You guy’s my coaching is different from anyone out there in the online world because not only am I a coach but I am also an attorney and attorneys do NOT think like other people. So let’s dive into my motto and some biz talk. Success and more dolla bills are on your horizon. Are you ready?

Legal Paigers!! If you tuned in last week you know I chatted all about the differences between independent contractors and employees. Well friends, this week’s episode is an extension of that topic and I am bringing on my dear friend Janelle, founder and owner of Janelle Joy Private Editing. You are going to get boatloads of amazing info from us as we discuss the good, the bad, and ugly of hiring on team members and how you can do it better. We talk about how Janelle went from a one-woman show to a team of six in just one year! She thrives by the model time is a luxury we can’t afford to waist so use it wisely and purposefully. I cannot wait for you guys to hear about what Janelle has to say about hiring on her editing team and the processes she emplaced to ensure everyone was a good fit and all her ducks were in a row… legally that is. Join our conversation NOW!

Today, we are talking all how to hire someone onto your team the right way. As small business owners, entrepreneurs, and creatives, we need help managing our businesses as we grow! At a certain point, it just isn’t possible to get all the work done by yourself. And, when hiring help, the biggest dilemma you will face is: should I hire individuals as independent contractors or employees? This is one of the biggest questions I get on my Instagram and Legal Paige private facebook community. I thought it was time to do an official podcast episode on this topic to get you all the information you need!! Make sure to tune in and listen carefully to the differences between these two worker designations because it could cost you and turn into a huge headache with the IRS if you aren’t handling your workers correctly. Are you ready? Let’s do this!

I am so so excited about today’s topic...drumroll… Pinterest!! Yep that’s right! Anndddd we’ve got an uber special guest, Vanessa Kynes!!! Vanessa is a Pinterest Marketing Strategist for creative small businesses. As a YouTuber, blogger, and consultant, she helps creative small businesses grow by teaching traffic-generating Pinterest strategies to increase their brand visibility, book more clients, and ultimately, generate more sales. All in all, she is pretty much the guru of Pinterest so I knew I needed to have her on the podcast. And she’s here today to chat all about it and how it is your secret weapon to business growth!! Are you ready to join our conversation?? Let’s do this!

Episode 9 Shownotes

This is Part 2 of our discussion last week on the essential contract clauses for any service-based company. Last week we talked about the Entire Agreement Clause, Description of Services Clause, Venue and Jurisdiction Clause, Severability Clause, Transfer Clause, Billing Structure Clause. Today we’re adding onto that with a few more essential clauses. Let's do this!!

Friends! This is one of my favorite things to talk about… contract clauses! Haha, I’m sure you’re not as excited as I am, but I promise you that once you listen in to these episodes you’ll be much happier than before and a smarter business owner because I’ll easily explain the most important clauses you need in your service contract and why they’re important to have. I’m also going to break this episode up into a two part episode series. Today is part 1 and next week will be part 2, because I’m not about “the overwhelm” and want you to have some time to digest the first set of clauses that I am going to talk about today before we jump into the next set. So, TUNE in NOW for part 1 and make sure you also listen to part 2 coming up next week!

It’s here!! The Entrepreneur’s Agreement toolbox!!! Today’s episode is all about the agreements you need to know as an entrepreneur. This is one you don’t want to miss! Like episode 5, this is another one of my foundational episodes that I (and my guests) will refer back to and expand upon! I’m talking about the general big-picture agreements you need as an entrepreneur! Don’t know what these are? That’s why I’m here. You can come back to this episode whenever you need a new agreement. Grab your favorite beverage and let's dive into these must-have contracts!

Hey hey! Happy Monday! This episode is a BIG one. It’s one of those foundational episodes that I will refer back to time and time again. We are diving DEEP into the three main types of business structures and tax designations for entrepreneurs and what each looks like. I am talking about tax implications, liability, risks involved, and what my suggestions and views are on each. This is a realllllly important episode, so I hope you tune in and potentially take notes along the way. Also, feel free to listen back to this episode every time you think you may need to change your business structure. Alrighty Legal Paigers, let's do this!

This week the topic is all about shifting mindset strategies for small business owners. I have enlisted the help of my friend Dondrea Owens. Dondrea is a CPA and Chief Financial Officer at The Creative’s CFO. Her core mission is to educate and empower women to confidently make financial decisions in their businesses.

It’s time to get a handle on your negative money mindsets as a small biz owner and shift them into more positive money mindset Strats so you have a better grasp on your business funds.

Tune in Now! Let’s grow your business, and save for the future!

Today on the show, I discuss how to work with your friends and be legal doing it!!

Trust me, I know how challenging it is to be an entrepreneur as I am one myself and built a photography business from the ground up. One thing that has helped me throughout the years is my friends in the business.

I have tons of femalepreneurs across the country that have been a guiding force behind my growing business. With that, I’ve learned the ins-and-outs of dealing with friends in the industry, trading services, and effectively communicating with colleagues when working together!!

TUNE IN! Let's chat about how to work with your friends the right and legal way! xo

Today on the show I am so excited to welcome my very first guest, Brittney Suttle. Britt is a CPA with 10+ years experience who loves helping female entrepreneurs manage their finances (both personally & professionally) and build scalable businesses that earn them money while they sleep. This lady is a lover of carbs, hiking, and all things numbers, she currently lives in Indianapolis with her husband where they spend their downtime building their real estate business.

Our conversation is all about small business tax deductions. A few of these tax tidbits might surprise you! Brittney is going to get you ready for tax season!! Join the conversation NOW! Follow Britt on Instagram: @brittandtheb and check out her website: www.brittandthebenjamins.com

Welcome Legal Paigers!

This first episode is all about starting to understand why the law is so important for you and your business. As a business owner myself, I know that we have to wear all the hats and that can make legal stuff confusing. In order to start you on your legal journey the right way, I want to discuss these 5 big legal concepts. It’s time to STOP worrying and START growing the business of your dreams!

The Legal Paige™ Podcast is a weekly interview show featuring legal, finance, and business tips for creatives and online businesses. We cut through the legal mumbo jumbo and make “scary” things like taxes, finances, business structures, and contracts EASY.

You’ll hear from industry leaders on specific topics, and will walk away with bite-sized action steps for making your own entrepreneurial dreams come true. Grab a cup of coffee (or your fave adult beverage) and let’s make your business legally legit.