It can be hard to justify hiring a lawyer when you’ve just started your business. Cash flow is tight, if not in the negative, and contracts and all that other “legal stuff” seem insignificant when you have so much else to worry about.

But you’re in this for the long game. Investing in your legal documents, making sure your business is running by the books and that you’re protected is important. In fact, it’s very important. While we don’t recommend heading over to a search engine and typing in “Privacy Policy Template” or “Coaching Contract Example”, we’ve also been there and we understand that, sometimes, it’s better than nothing.

Here are our top 3 legal documents that you need to have in place for your online business to be protected:

1. Your Privacy Policy & Terms of Use

Everyone has a website these days and everyone collects different information from the visitors on their sites depending on how their site was built and the functions and capabilities of their sites. Not only that, but depending on where your visitors are from, you need certain clauses and information included (like that whole GDPR thing you heard about a little while ago). It’s important, and it is so much better to know you’re covered than not. It’s also your most public asset. So get that sh*t taken care of.

We actually teamed up with a lawyer, Keren de Zwart of Not Your Father’s Lawyer, to build a detailed Privacy Policy Template for our Rebel Office Resource Library, so, if you haven’t got access yet, I’m sure you’ll want to do it because not only this resource can be yours, but you will also be able to watch her masterclass and get other legal checklist and other practical entrepreneurial resources.

2. Your Service Agreement (for service-based businesses) or Terms & Conditions (for product-based businesses)

If you have an e-commerce business, you need to have Terms & Conditions outlined on your site. This is different from the Terms of Use of your site. Your Terms & Conditions are all about the conditions, disclaimers, and details of their purchase from you.

This is like your Service Agreement if you’re a service-based business like a coach, consultant or professional service. Your Service Agreement outlines the terms of your agreement (duh!), such as timeline, deliverables, responsibilities of both parties and any other clauses that could outline how to handle disputes, when you’re available for contact, etc.

Not only does a Service Agreement or Terms & Conditions boost your professionally level, but it can actually protect you and give you something to fall back on if there’s an issue.

3. Independent Contractor Agreement

As your business grows, but before your hire on a full time, chances are you’ll stretch your “boss” legs with an independent contractor or two. There are definitely benefits of hiring a contractor instead of a full-time employee, but this isn’t the time to let your guard down. Go into any agreement protected and with details of the agreement (including if your contractor is responsible for their own insurance and equipment, what the nature of the relationship is, timeline and deliverables, etc.) defined before any work begins.

We get it, you’re an optimist. You like to think the best of people. We think that’s fantastic. We also think you need to be prepared and not learn this lesson the hard way. So at least have these three legal documents in place.