65 - Tip Tuesday - The Top 5 Legal Items Every Online Business Should Have with Karen Taggart

Having an online business can be a really great way to embed your business with your lifestyle.  However, you may not realize legally what you need to do until it's too late (and you're left to just hope that you've done the right thing.).  Karen Taggart of Karen-Taggart.com joined us on this podcast to breakdown what you should have in place in order to protect yourself when it comes to running your own business.

The first thing you should have in place for your business is your privacy policy.  It's usually a link way at the bottom of your website.  You can have it as 'privacy policy' or 'legal'.  This many times can be required by many different states or countries.  They're much shorter than the terms and conditions, but they still have some specific things to each company.  You need to tell if you use cookies from your site.  California has higher standards, so it's always good practice to write yours that will meet their standards.  They really don't vary a lot from site to site.

There are a couple of sites out there that will help you put together some of these.  They will have you fill out a questionnaire, but can help you put together a privacy policy for your site.

The second thing you need to include are your Terms & Conditions Even if you have a separate page for your courses and a page, you need to have separate policies and conditions for each site.  As the privacy policies may not change, the Terms and Conditions do change, so be sure to make sure you're updating your site.  These are for the visitors of your site, and what's expected of them and what's expected of you.  These should also include copyright and trademarks.  There should also be what happens if a disagreement does occur.

The third thing you'll need is a Disclaimer.  This is something that is part of your Terms & Conditions.  There are some general things that everyone will include.  However, there are also industry specific disclaimers too.  For example if you're in the health field, you're saying you're not a doctor, etc.  You should also include this separately on your website on the sales page, when they're checking out, etc.  They're not bullet proof, and they can lay out what they should expect from you, and what they should not expect.

The fourth item you'll need is a Client Agreement.   This is about setting up clear expectations about what should be expected down the line. Granted none of these are 100% bullet proof, but if it can create an understanding of what everyone is responsible for, then they can create a clear understanding.  You can use electronic documents, or you have them click a box to acknowledge the document.  Just lay out the basics of who does what, when, and all of the expectations around it.  If you get push back on this, then that's definitely a red flag.

The fifth item is the Customer Satisfaction Policy.  This will show what you have for refund, guarantees, and again making sure there are clear expectations set.  Many times this will be part of your client agreement.  It's just really about detailing everything that your policy is.

Karen has also offered a great download Free Legal Guide "Top 5 Things You MUST Do To Protect Your Biz" at http://karen-taggart.com/ freelegalguide

Karen also has an upcoming FREE Webinar and you can find out more here:  http://webinarjam.net/webinar/ go/13212/3cc926dd11

More About Karen:  Karen Taggart helps wanna-be and new business owners feel confident and protected because they understand the basics of business law.  As an Attorney for Entrepreneurs, she’s been featured by the NiceOps 2015 Planathon, Reverie Coaching, Motherpedia, NewMama Welcome Pack Blog Hop, Happy Wives Club Blog Hop, and as a Badass'd Biz & Ink's Garage Party VIP.  When she’s not working on her business, you can find her spending time with her cutie-pie daughter and high school sweetheart hubby.  Her recently-released guide — "Top 5 Things You MUST Do To Protect Your Biz" — is free and available on her website.  Find out how to get started building a solid legal foundation for your business at http://karen-taggart.com.