I love teaching fitness business owners how to run the most efficient businesses possible and how to side-step liabilities in the process. Liabilities are like potholes and our goal is to avoid stepping in it.
One of the easiest ways to avoid potholes and get your ducks in a row is to create systems. Systems for managing operations, marketing, finance, and legal liability. Once you have those ready to go, it’s plug-and-play, which leaves you time to do what you do best - teach fitness, empower clients, and change lives through movement.
The other easy way to avoid potholes is having legal agreements in place to keep your business legally compliant. Legal Agreement ensures that:
1. Your business is legally compliant, and follows local, state, and federal laws;
2 . Clear expectations between you and your client are communicated and agreed upon; and
3. You create an organized onboarding process that also builds credibility.
Fitness-based businesses require fitness specific contracts. And these below five agreements exist to legally protect your business, ensure you earn what you’re owed, keep the peace between you and clients, help you breathe easy at night knowing all your *stuff* is in order...YUP, they’re magical if you let them be.
So without further ado - five legal agreements that your fitness business NEEDS.
1 - Liability Waiver + Professional Liability Insurance: Your Liability Waiver protects the business in the event an individual is injured while training, because the participant waives their right to hold you, the instructor, liable. Waivers are the single most important document for your business if written custom to your business’ specific needs and practices. Your Professional Liability Insurance (often called your ‘General Liability Insurance’) protects you, the trainer/instructor, in the event a client is injured during training. It’s vital that your policy is custom to your training to ensure that how you train is covered under your policy.
2 - Client Agreement: Your Client Agreement is the financial agreement between you and your clients for training, whether one-on-one, or group classes. The CA, or Membership Agreement, describes how clients book and pay for sessions, studio policies, covers medical history and studio intellectual property, and often includes state-mandated terms and language.
Once you have [your systems] ready to go, it’s plug-and-play, which leaves you time to do what you do best - teach fitness, empower clients, and change lives through movement.
3 - Terms of Service: Your ToS, or Terms of Use, OR Terms and Conditions refers to the governing document for your website, and oftentimes your web-based services like your on-demand workout platform, your coaching membership, or any other digital products you’re selling directly through your website. It is the financial contract between the purchaser and YOU, and controls how the client uses the website, how their payment is processed, and how your intellectual property is protected, just to name a few.
4 - Privacy Policy: Your Privacy Policy discloses how you’re collecting, using, storing, and protecting personally identifiable information. In addition to being considerate to your clients, subscribers, and community re: how you’re using their email addresses, this is another legally required document. Which means, the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) can and *has* fined businesses operating without them, or operating with an invalid or inapplicable version. And the fines - wowza.
5 - Independent Contract/Employee Agreement + NDA: Not only do you need this contract to memorialize the work done by another for your business, you need this to be explicitly clear that: the worker is not an employee (hello labor laws), that information they learn is confidential (non-disclosure language), and the work they do for your business is owned by you.
If any of this resonated and you’re ready to take that step in your business with affordable, custom-written legal agreements that will save you time, money, and energy - email me (Danielle@DanielleSteadBlanton.com) and let’s get to work together! I can’t wait to help you feel that moment of relief knowing you’re protected.