Are you a new coach wanting to start your business in the right way?
Then, a coaching contract is what you need.
As a business owner, you want to protect your business and make sure you get the money you’re owed, you don’t suddenly get sued by a disgruntled client, and your business is safe. (Spoiler alert: A coaching contract does that and much more.)
Today, I, together with legal coach Lisa Fraley, share how you can create a solid coaching agreement for your business.
Steps:
Who am I?
My name is Luisa Zhou. I’ve taught thousands of students and counting how to leave their day jobs and start their own business making anywhere from 10K to 100K plus in less than a year. I started my first online business teaching people the digital advertising skills I’d learned from previous jobs, made 6-figures in 4 months, and quit my job. Today, I teach smart, successful people like YOU how to start your own six-figure plus business.
Who is Lisa Fraley?
Lisa Fraley, JD is an Attorney, Legal Coach®, Speaker,#1 Best-Selling Author of Easy Legal Steps and the host of the “Legally Enlightened” podcast on iTunes. As a Holistic Lawyer®, Lisa blends her legal expertise as a former health care attorney in a large corporate law firm and the care of a Health & Life Coach through IIN & Coach U to help thousands of heart-centered holistic health coaches, licensed practitioners, and online business owners protect their businesses and brands with contracts, disclaimers, trademarks and more.
When you sign up, you’ll also receive regular updates on building a successful online business.
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Wonder what a coaching contract does?
First, research shows that contracts build trust. Your legal agreements will make clients trust you more and that way, improve your coaching services.
Second, if you already have a couple of coaching clients, you know that it happens from time to time:
Even if these situations are relatively rare, you still want to protect yourself from them. That’s what a coaching contract does.
A one-on-one coaching contract is the first agreement or legal document you should have in place as a coach.
You see: If you’re serious about your business, you should be legally protected from the very beginning. You save time, energy, and a lot of gray hairs by having clear boundaries for your business.
Establishing a coaching agreement helps you set the terms for your coaching. It helps you say, “This is how I conduct my coaching calls, how I respond to messages, and how you can get in touch with me.”
And look, it’s not all about telling clients what they can’t do.
An agreement makes it clear what your coaching program is all about. It protects both you AND your client.
As Lisa puts it:
“A Client Agreement is the written contract you use with one-on-one clients. It’s your key document for protecting your one-on-one service or program that you have poured HOURS over to develop (not to mention the blood, sweat, tears and dollars!) and it protects the income that you plan to earn.
Your written Client Agreement gives you strong legal backing, which helps you feel safe, secure, and confident—and it clearly spells out your client policies in one place so your clients don’t have to dig through their e-mails to remember your policies about refunds, missed appointments, or cancellations so you can prevent headaches and awkward conversations later.”
When I started my coaching business, this was the only agreement I had in place. It was only when I added on group programs and courses that I created more contracts.
A coaching contract shows your clients what they can and can’t do with our content and program. It:
…And much more. For example, here’s how I’ve been able to protect my business with my contracts:
It’s relatively rare that I get a refund or chargeback request because I offer quality services and products and I’m careful to make it clear who my products are for.
Still, it does happen.
Most coaching businesses will get at least a few refund requests for every hundred clients or so. (It’s just the name of the business game — ANY business will get refund requests.)
My refund request process depends a bit on the specific request.
If it seems that someone just doesn’t feel like paying (and is in clear violation with my terms), I will hold them to the contract.
That’s where contracts help. If you’re delivering what you promise, you can feel assured that you are protected legally from wrongful refund requests.
I talk more about it in this video:
Let me share a quick story about why you need terms that are specifically created for a coaching business…
Before I had made any money in my business, I hired a lawyer to write my contract and website terms. I yelped lawyers in my area and specifically looked for lawyers who worked with startup businesses.
Why? I figured they would understand my needs as an online business owner.
In the end, I ended up paying them around $3,000 without much to show for it.
Well after I paid for the contract, I learned more about the legal requirements for my industry. And I realized that my contract wouldn’t cut it. It was about two paragraphs long and a lot of basic things were missing.
For example, my website terms didn’t include a cookie policy, something that is standard for website terms and conditions.
The result? I had to hire a completely new lawyer and spent thousands more.
Your contract needs to work for your business. If you’re an online coach, then it needs to take those online requirements into consideration. (On the other hand, if you’re an offline coach, there are other things that need to be addressed, like liability for accidents at your office.)
As Lisa explains, one of the biggest mistakes coaches make is to create a short contract.
“Each coach is free to be as strict or as lenient as the coach wishes. However, some of the biggest mistakes come from using a very short contract – like 1-2 pages.
Many coaches are afraid to send a 4-5 page contract because they think it’s “long” and might scare away their prospective client.
However, short contracts are generally vaguely worded or incomplete in that they are missing key sections which can work against you.
The way that law works is that if something is not spelled out in writing, it’s harder to prove or defend. It can more easily be construed against you. You actually need to spell your policies out in detail to be super-clear.
For example, if you have a 30-day money back guarantee, instead of writing ‘I offer a 30-day refund’, it’s far more clear and protective to write ‘You have 30 days from the date of purchase to request a refund by sending an email to me at this email address.’”
You need to make sure that your coaching contract is as long as it needs to be. (A great way is to use Lisa’s own legal term templates, which we’ll get to shortly.)
Next, we’ll look at exactly what you need to include in your contract.
The good thing about coaching contracts is that you only need to create them once. You then send out this standard contract that you and your client sign.
A coaching contract consists of the following parts:
The introduction establishes the purpose of your contract. You identify the parties of the contract (that’s you and your client).
The program description gives a clear overview of your coaching program. What’s included? How many hours/calls?
In this section, you list your own responsibilities as a coach. You also list your client’s responsibilities as a coachee.
What is your policy on contacting you and rescheduling calls? This is the section that establishes your policy.
Here you state your program rates, your refund policy, and other payment-related issues.
Your confidentiality clause outlines the information that is and isn’t confidential and under what circumstances.
This is the section where you establish how your clients can use your content.
Here, you tell clients what they can expect of your services and what they shouldn’t expect. You’re basically saying that you can’t promise specific results and that your advice isn’t medical/financial or legal.
This section helps you include different terms that don’t fit in the other sections. For example: How contracts can be terminated and how you resolve disputes.
Now, if you want a secure contract that you KNOW will cover most situations you might face as an online coach, I recommend that you buy contract templates for coaching. Lisa offers DIY templates, which are created for online coaches and cover everything you need in your business.
Her legal starter kit for 1-on-1 clients include all the legal contracts you need right now:
And, if you’re just setting up your business, take a look at Lisa’s Sole Proprietor Biz Registration and Taxes package.
You can also use a tool like LegalZoom or RocketLawyer. My own preference is Lisa’s templates because as a lawyer for coaches, Lisa has so much experience in the coaching industry.
