Ep. 38 | FAQs About Cover Your Assets

My annual membership Cover Your Assets is open for enrollment with some additional bonuses this week! Tune in to this bonus episode to hear answers to some of the questions that I've been getting about Cover Your Assets this week, including a rundown of what's included in the membership and who is a good fit to join.

Join by Friday, September 15 to cash in on the extra bonuses: the Trademark Roadmap and a VIP ticket to a live workshop in Q1 2024. Click here to join.

If you're an online business owner who’s ready to take the guesswork out of the legal aspects of your business, watch my free training to learn the 3 steps to get your business legally legit without hiring a lawyer. Let’s get the legal stuff covered so you can grow your business with confidence. Go to artfulcontracts.com/legalclass to sign up.

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Full show notes at artfulcontracts.com/podcast

Transcript

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Hello my friends. If you have been following along with me, you have probably heard me talking about Cover Your Assets this week. Cover Your Assets is my signature program. It's an annual membership that combines curriculum, training, templates, resources, and support from me so that you can get all the legal stuff in place for your business. Enrollment is open this week with some extra bonuses. So today I wanted to run through some questions that I've been getting this week to help you make the decision if Cover Your Assets is the right fit for you and just give you a better idea. Now, if you're listening to this after September 15th, don't worry about it too much. Cover Your Assets is the membership is open on an open enrollment basis, so you can still join. We just have some additional bonuses this week until September 15th. So stick around for a little overview of what Cover Your Assets is, who it's for, and getting into some questions that I've been getting this week. Let's get into it. Hey, I'm Amy Nestheim, licensed attorney for online business owners and founder of my own business, Artful Contracts. You're listening to Legal Made Easy, the show that makes the legal aspects of online business easy to understand and implement so you can grow your business with confidence knowing you've got it all covered. Let's dive in. First of all, I want to make sure that you're in the right place. How do you know if Cover Your Assets is a good fit for you? I designed this membership for online business owners that have a client-focused business. So that's things like service providers, copywriters, graphic designers, virtual assistants, digital marketers, branding designers, website designers, and other kinds of services where you do the work for the client. It's also for coaches, mindset coaches, business coaches, personal development coaches, nutrition coaches, financial coaches, and also consultants. So the common denominator here being you work with clients either on a done-for-you, done with you, or coaching type of relationship. You work with them one-on-one or you work with them in groups, and you are the owner and operator of your business. So you're not only operating as a support coach for someone else. You are running your business, you want to grow it, you want to scale it. If you have a business that sounds a little bit different for that than that, it's I'm not saying that cover assets won't help you. It's just there are probably gonna be things in there that just aren't relevant. Some of it will be, but you'll have to filter through a little bit more. So that's on the practical side of it, like that, you know, actual who is the business owner. But really, this program is designed for business owners who want to stop wondering whether the contract that you pieced together you found in a blog is actually gonna cover you each time you sign a new client. It's for the business owner who wants to stop hesitating, putting offers out there because you're afraid someone else is gonna copy the content that you worked so hard to create. And especially if you want clear, actionable answers to your legal questions without having to talk to a stuffy lawyer who doesn't understand online business and isn't gonna take your plan seriously. And a lot of my students fall into one of two categories: either holding themselves back from starting your business because you have this great idea, but you don't have all the legal stuff in place. You want to make sure you're protected before you do anything and so you're stuck because you don't even know where to start. So that's on one side, or on the other side, I have a lot of students who already started their business, they have a couple of the legal pieces in place, maybe they have a one-on-one contract, or they've filed the paperwork for the LLC, but they still have a feeling that there's missing pieces in their legal strategy, leaving them exposed to unnecessary risk, and they want to go back and start plugging in those holes. So if any of that sounds like you, number one, you're not alone. It's not your fault. This stuff is confusing and complicated, but you're in the right place. Cover your assets is the resource that walks you through how to empower your business legally, reduce your risk, protect your money so you can get rid of all of those nagging worries and grow your business with confidence, knowing you've got it all covered. So if that sounds like something you want, keep listening because I'm gonna tell you exactly what's included and answer some other questions that I've gotten this week. All right, question number one: what's included when I join? There are three main aspects to the program, to the membership, that you get 12 months of access to when you join. So the first one is our comprehensive curriculum. This is a step-by-step video course that walks you through the asset protection method. This is the method that I created to help online business owners get all the legal stuff in place, starting with creating a stable foundation, like forming your LLC and learning how to operate it, and then building profitable relationships, making sure that you have strong contracts in place that support your boundaries with your clients, and then protecting your growth, everything that you do that attracts people to you. Make sure that you're doing that the right way. So things like your copyrights, trademarks, marketing, website, all of that. So this curriculum is broken down into these three phases of the asset protection method, and each one has short, actionable video lessons that come with checklists, guides, templates, everything that you need to get all the legal stuff in place easy way. That's a full-length course. It has about 37 lessons in it, but again, they're short and they're split out by topics, so you can, you know, take what you need right now and then come back to the rest and kind of implement over time, which is why you get 12 months of access. The second piece that you get access to is the contract template vault. This is a library of 30 plus plug-and-play legal templates, and they come with guides that walk you through how to use each one so that you can understand it, customize it for yourself, and explain it to your client. So, this is things like a freelancing contract template, an independent contractor template if you hire someone to do work for you, a coaching contract template, a group coaching contract template, consulting contract template, terms of purchase for group programs, terms of purchase for online courses and digital products, intellectual property license agreements, all kinds of things. If you're looking for something specific and want to know if it's included, feel free to DM me. But each of these are included in the lessons when they come up, when they're relevant, and then also pulled out separately so that you can find them easily whenever you need it. And the third piece is our live support and coaching. So you have access to me throughout your time in the program for questions and feedback when you join our complete experience. So we have live monthly group coaching calls where we have an hour on Zoom, and I'd usually do a 10 to 15 minute lesson at the beginning on some topic that has come up for the group or something that has changed legally, something that's relevant for our members. And then after that, we have time for QA, and we usually have about 10 to 15 people on each call, so we always get to everyone's questions. I'm never telling you, you know, come back next time. We get to talk through every question that everyone has. And on top of the calls, so those are monthly on the third Thursday of each month. They're recorded and added into our course dashboard. All of the past coaching calls are in there and searchable by topic, so that's a huge resource on top of the lessons because you get to go see what other people have asked in real time. You know, if you have a question, search it in the dashboard and you can find the topic right then. But on top of that, we also have a community group and I'm in there every single week answering questions. You can post your question whenever you have it. Uh, you can introduce yourself, get to know other members, and we also have challenges in there that are kind of like goals or milestones that you can't just let everyone know that you've maybe you've formed your LLC or you landed a client or something like that, and we can celebrate you. So it kind of gives you milestones and achievements as you go through the program for a little direction and also encouragement. If you are not someone who needs support or ever is going to use support, there is a self-study option for the membership where you just take out that support element. So you still have access to the curriculum and the contract template vault. You just don't have access to our calls, the call recordings, or our community. Because I've been teaching long enough that I know there are students who will join. They want that information, they want the resources, but they're never gonna ask a question. So I don't want to make you pay for that if you're that kind of student. So there is a self-study option as well. Now I also mentioned that you get extra bonuses if you join before Friday, September 15th. So what are they? During this promotional period, which ends on Friday, I am giving you an entire extra bonus course for free when you join the complete experience of Cover Your Assets. This is the Trademark Roadmap. If you're listening if you've listened to this podcast, you know the importance of registering a trademark. It's kind of expensive to hire a lawyer to do it for you. If you are a US resident, you are allowed to register your own trademark. You're allowed to file the application for yourself. You don't have to hire a lawyer, but it is a long and complicated process. So I don't recommend trying to do it just by Googling and like figuring it out on your own because you will make mistakes and your registration probably won't protect you that well if it even gets through. So, as a compromise, I created the trademark roadmap. And this is a full-length course that walks you through step by step the trademark registration process from running the search yourself to filing your own application, navigating the portal that you have to file the application through with over-the-shoulder video walkthroughs. You actually watch me fill out an application, do a search, evaluate a search, all of that. So if you aren't in the place where you can hire a lawyer to do it for you, or if you have like a bunch of trademarks that you want to register, and paying someone to file all of them would be kind of expensive, this is a great resource. It's also a good resource just to figure out what your trademarks are, whether it's a good idea to register them, because we go through that as well, and kind of get a dip your toe in okay, what's the process? Is this worth my time or not? So you can make that informed decision of this is what I want to register and I want to hire someone, or yes, I can do this myself. So that is the first bonus that is additional right now, expiring on Friday. If you join the complete experience by Friday, that will be added straight to your dashboard. That bonus is not available to self-study members. The other bonus is for both self-study and complete experience members. It doesn't matter which version of the membership you join, and that is a free VIP ticket to an upcoming live workshop. Now, the topic, I have not announced the topic yet, and there is a reason for that. This is gonna be like a 60 to 90 minute live workshop, super tangible with resources and takeaways. I did this last year with the copycat workshop and it went really well. So I wanted to do it again, but I want to make sure that it is a topic that really resonates. So if you join Cover Assets this week, you're gonna get three or four topics. I have them picked out already, and you're gonna be able to vote on what the topic is for the live workshop. So you get to vote on the topic and you get that free ticket. I'm going to be selling these tickets right around$200, so that's a pretty great value for you. So that would be a live class over Zoom where you get to ask questions, you'll get some resources to go along with it, and then you'll also have probably limited time access to the replay as well. So if you want in on those bonuses, the trademark roadmap, which I sell for$497, or this brand new workshop and being able to vote on what the topic is gonna be, then join us inside cover assets before Friday, September 15th. All right, I already talked about this a little bit, but I get this question a lot of is this going to work for my niche? So we've already talked about this a program is designed for online businesses that work with clients as their primary source of income, whether in a capacity of doing it for you, doing it with you, teaching, consulting, or coaching. So things like service providers, coaches, consultants, course creators. It's great for all of those. And that's exactly who it was designed for. So that that means that there are a lot of niches because you can do that kind of thing in a lot of different areas. So that includes health and wellness, it includes finance, it includes business, also copywriting, designing, digital marketing, social media management, virtual assisting, all of that. So the niche, what you teach or what service you actually provide is less important than the fact that you work with clients as the primary revenue driver of your business. So that means that it's not designed for product-based, in-person, brick and mortar type businesses, e-commerce or like handcrafted goods shops, or things like a bakery, something that's more in-person focused. Uh, just because there are gonna be pieces that are helpful, all of the LLC stuff, all of the marketing stuff is still gonna be really helpful, but it's there's gonna be parts that aren't relevant, and there's also gonna be parts that are missing. So, like a lot of the client contract things are not gonna be relevant for someone who sells physical products. Um, but I don't necessarily talk about things that are specific to in-person or physical product-based businesses in the program. So, of course, you're welcome to join and get what you can out of it. I just wanted to be transparent around what is you're gonna find. All right, next question is how do I know if this works in my state? So, all of the content inside of Cover Your Assets is based on US law. The contract templates are written for US law. Most states across the US have very similar laws. There are resources in the membership that help you figure out and address anything unique, any unique laws that your state or your local county might have. So we have flags for that. Hey, you need to look into X, Y, and Z specifically for your state or your town. Things like licensing is very state-specific, but will help you figure out how to identify it. Beyond that, the legal foundation that the course provides is also going to help you know the right questions to ask. If you do find a situation where you decide to hire a local lawyer if something comes up, or if you want someone local to review your contracts, having that foundation can be a game changer when it comes to advocating for yourself and choosing what's best for your business. You'll know what questions to ask, you'll know if they give if they're giving you bad advice, which unfortunately happens sometimes when local attorneys aren't used to dealing with online businesses and there's some different concerns there. So you'll just be in a better situation to empower yourself and advocate for yourself if you ever do need support from a local attorney. All right, another question I've gotten this week is well, I already have my LLC, so do I really need this? Is it actually gonna help? Isn't that like a big part of the program? Here's the thing the legal part of your business is much more than a box to check off on your list of to-dos. So a lot of people think that once they have their contract and their LLC, they're done. Legal is done and covered. And of course, that makes sense because it's the things that everyone talks about. I talk about those things all the time. But the legal side of your business needs maintenance just like any other aspect of your business. You're not gonna set up your welcome sequence and then never email your subscribers again, right? That's only the first step. You have to nurture your legal side of your business consistently, just like you would nurture your subscribers, far beyond just setting up your LLC. So that's the big picture. Forming an LLC is just one half of one phase of the asset protection method, but you also have to be able to know how to use your LLC. So if you just file the paperwork and then do nothing else, your LLC isn't actually gonna protect you. There is maintenance involved even in just running your LLC, in running your LLC, and then in everything else. There's more to setting up and maintaining the legal aspects of your business than just filing that LLC paperwork. So big picture, it's much more than that. And if you already have an LLC, you're still gonna get so much out of the program. And there's a community, answers your questions, tons of additional resources, support, all of the contract templates, a lot more value that you'll get. But bottom line, if you have your LLC, you're not done yet. That's not the end, it's the beginning. Okay, next question: What is the refund policy? I am a firm believer. I think I've talked about this on podcast before, but I'm a firm believer in having a refund policy. Number one, have one, but also allow people to have refunds. So this is obviously different for service providers. If you do the work, don't give refunds. But for a digital product, I think it is so important to give refunds if people want them. So Cover Your Assets comes with a 100% money-back guarantee. I believe in it so strongly that I'm not worried about it at all. I have no emotions tied to offering this because I know that it's a really great product. So if you jump into the program and you realize, oh, this isn't actually right for me, or I already know all of this stuff, or for whatever reason it's just not a good fit, all you have to do is request a refund within 14 days of your purchase by sending us an email. No hoops to jump through, no homework, nothing to prove, no questions asked. You just send the email within 14 days of joining and we will refund your money. All right, the next thing I want to address is the minimum time commitment for the membership. So Cover Your Assets is a membership, so it is an ongoing monthly or annual membership, but there is a 12-month commitment. It's an annual membership. So if you join on the monthly membership, you can't just cancel any time in that first 12 months. You are committing to at least 12 months in the program. After your 12 months are up, you can stay as long as you want. You'll continue on a monthly basis. You can cancel anytime you want after that. Now, the reason that it's like this is to keep the monthly price as low as we can get it while still matching the enormous value that's inside of the program. It just wouldn't be sustainable for me to have people join for a month, download everything, all of the contract templates that are available in the program, and then leave. I just couldn't run my business this way. So the compromise that we came up with to keep the monthly costs as low as we can, keep the value as high as we can is to put this 12-month commitment on it. There is also an annual payment option, and if you choose that, you just have the one payment that you're committing to. You can cancel, it will automatically renew next year, but you'll get an email like two weeks ahead of time of reminding you, and you can cancel at that point if you don't want to stay. Of course, you can stay as long as you want. And the benefit of the annual payment option is that you get two months free inside of the program. So pay for 10 months, stay for 12. All right, last question. How is this program? How is Cover Your Assets any different from any other program about getting legal? What makes it so special? Honestly, I might be a little biased, but I think it is really special. I don't know of any other programs that have all of the legal pieces you need in one place. And I have heard this from my students, I've heard this from people, random people who just find me on the internet, say, I joined this other program and it gave me some contract templates or it told me how to make my LLC, but then I had questions about trademarks and they couldn't answer it, it wasn't in the program. You know, they have some bits and pieces, they address certain aspects, but not a comprehensive view of all the stuff you need to be worried about. Because as the owner of your business, as the solopreneur, you are the person who is in charge of the legal stuff, and that means you need to know what the legal stuff is, what all of it is. And a lot of times with other courses or with other online legal educators, you get a handful of templates, a quick guide on how to use it, or a topic-specific course. So a course on copyrights, a separate course on trademarks, a separate course on your LLC. It just scratches the surface of one topic that you need and you don't get that whole picture. So that means that most business owners end up with only a few of the puzzle pieces in place. They have an LLC, but they don't know what to do with it. They have a contract, but it doesn't necessarily reflect their policies or support their boundaries. I am not having that. I think you deserve better than that. You deserve to feel empowered by the legal aspects of your business in control of them rather than confused or intimidated. That is what makes Cove Your Assets different. My goal is to empower you to step into your role as the savvy, legally legit entrepreneur of your business. And that's what Cove Your Assets helps you do. If you have any other questions, please feel free to reach out to me. You can send me a DM over on Instagram. My handle is at ArtfulContracts. You can also send us an email to info at artfulcontracts.com. I would love to chat through this with you. I want you to feel confident that this is the right decision for you. This promotional period where you get the extra bonuses does end on September 15th. That's Friday. So if you want the trademark roadmap, if you want the free VIP ticket to a new workshop coming up in Q1 in March, and you want to vote for what that topic is going to be, then join us by Friday. If you miss the deadline, you can still join us. Enrollment is open on an ongoing basis. You just won't get those specific bonuses. So if you're ready to step into your role as a legally legit entrepreneur, if you're ready to feel confident and supported and empowered by the legal aspects of your business, I would love to see you inside Cover Your Assets. Head on over to artfulcontracts.com slash CYA September. Also linked down in the show notes to sign up and grab those bonuses before Friday. I will see you in there.