Season 1, Episode 12: A Business Survival Guide: Legal Protection 101.

🎧 Entrepreneurship isn’t just about building dreams—it’s about protecting them. Too many small business owners find out the hard way that one bad client, one missed contract clause, or one unexpected lawsuit can undo years of hard work.

In this episode of the Dream Doers Podcast, I’m pulling back the curtain on the legal blind spots that almost cost me everything—and how you can avoid making the same mistakes. From contracts to client disputes to staying legally covered, consider this your Business Survival Guide: Legal Protection 101.

💬 Share your own business “close calls” or legal scares in the comments. Have you ever had a client not pay, a contract go sideways, or a moment you wished you had legal backup? Let’s swap stories—because every entrepreneur has one.

✨ Follow Jana with the Dream Doers Podcast on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook: @thedreamdoers.podcast and visit my website at ⁠⁠www.thedreamdoers.com⁠⁠

📝 Read all the Show Notes (full script) on our blog: ⁠https://www.janamarie.co/blog⁠

BusinessSurvival #EntrepreneurProtection #SmallBusinessTips #LegalForEntrepreneurs #ProtectYourBusiness #EntrepreneurStruggles #EntrepreneurshipUnfiltered #BusinessMistakes #EntrepreneurLife101 #DreamDoersPodcast

___________________________________________________________________

✨ Episode Highlights:

00:00 Understanding Business Risks and Legal Protections
00:33 Understanding the Need for Legal Support
09:01 Navigating the Legal Landscape
13:12 Empowerment Through Legal Resources
15:06 The Importance of Proactive Protection in Business
18:17 Empowering Legal Protection through Rich Life Alliance
23:09 Protecting Your Business

___________________________________________________________________

Jana Marie (00:07)
Welcome back, Dream Doers. You know, the moment you start a business, you’ve got a target on your back. Lawsuits, contracts, clients not paying. It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when. And here’s the truth. If we don’t know our rights, we simply don’t have any. So today I’m sharing the things that I wish I knew when I started my business over 15 years ago and how you can protect yourself before it’s too late so you don’t make the same mistakes I did.

Jana Marie (00:34)
So here’s what you’re gonna say to me. Jana, I don’t really need any of these services. I don’t break the law, I don’t really need any support, like nothing’s going on. Or I have a friend who’s an attorney or my uncle’s an attorney, so I’ll just ask them whenever something happens. And I get that because I was that person. For so long I rode the fence, I just don’t need anything, nothing’s happening. But I didn’t think about some of the common struggles that small businesses owners go through.

So let me share a few of those things with you and see if any of these resonate. Clients not paying, signing contracts you don’t fully understand. Maybe you’ve sent a contract to a client who sent it back with red lines or had their attorney look over it. What if you’re a small business owner like me and it’s just you? And when you work with a really big corporation, they’ve got a whole legal team and a financial team and they’re sending you multiple things and you don’t know what those documents are.

You don’t even know if it’s okay to change your contract, then what do you do? What about people threatening lawsuits? What if you’re a photo booth company like me and I have three different vehicles and somebody, heaven forbid, falls out of one of my trailers when they’re walking out the door or bumps their head and then they want to sue me? Then what? Or the stress of not knowing even who to call whenever something like that happens.

If you did not listen to episode 11, I would really encourage you to go back and listen to that. I had a client who weeks within their wedding, I couldn’t get a hold of.

Their final payment was due as their wedding photographer. I needed to meet with them to go over their final timeline, the final details, and make sure I had all of my ducks in a row for them. I couldn’t get a hold of them. I would email, would text, I would call. Nobody ever got back to me until a few days before I finally said, listen, I don’t know what’s going on. I hope you’re okay first and foremost.

I’ve got to know what I need to do. cannot by my contract show up on your wedding day if I don’t have confirmation first to know where to even go, what time to be there. But per my contract, I’m not obligated to perform these services unless your payment is in full before I show up. Three weeks before your wedding date was the due date. What do I do? Please just help me out. Like respond respectfully. I just need to be in the know.

Finally the day the morning of the wedding the groom reaches out to me. We’ve broke up I think it’s insulting that you keep trying to reach out to us

And I’m thinking ⁓ my gosh like first that’s heartbreaking to hear you know I wish the best for all of my clients and my couples that I work with But in this situation I needed to have some form of communication, and I didn’t have any

I didn’t know what to do for those weeks leading up to and naturally most of us get into our Facebook forums because we’re in groups in our specific industry and we’re saying, hey, what do I do? Or maybe you’ll be in a group of somebody who’s an attorney and they’re trying to help out small businesses similar to what this podcast is today. And so you might get in there, what do I do? And they think, well, I can help you out, but here’s some PDFs you’ve got to pay for, or here’s some this you’ve got to pay for. You can hop on a one-on-one call with me.

all those things are gonna cost you money and you’re thinking,

I’m in this group, I don’t really know these people, do I trust them? Like I really don’t know, right? But what if you had access to any question you had about anything legal, anything business, in any capacity for just $2 a day? This is the program.

that after I went through some of my situations, I connected with someone who said, you know, this would really benefit you. This would help protect you. It would empower you. And I’m thinking, gosh, I’ve already spent so much money over here going the traditional route, reaching out to attorneys. So I just don’t think I can afford it at the time.

The price comparison was a no brainer, but I was already in over here and I didn’t want to lose more money. That was the mindset that I had. Now,

what had happened in my situation is I needed to find the right attorney. So most of us think we’re just gonna Google or we’re gonna ask that friend and that friend’s gonna say, I really can’t help you because I’m in this field of law and I don’t know that field of law so I’m gonna refer you to this person. Well what you have to do is then sit down for a one hour consultation with that attorney which is typically anywhere from $250 to $400 an hour depending on the attorney and that’s just to meet with them.

to share your story and hope that they can help you or maybe answer some questions in that consult. I met with over eight attorneys to try to find the best one that would fit for me because not only was I needing some family and personal advice, I was needing some business advice as well because they were tethered to the situation that I was navigating. So I learned the hard way that just meeting with those eight attorneys alone at $250 a piece

added up really fast when each of them said, you know, I am in business lab and I can’t really help you with that because it’s tied into family and I don’t do family. And in my mind, I’m thinking I can’t be the only one in this state who has gone through these things and I’ve had a business at the same time. So in my head, I’m like, this is a no brainer. This should be easy. But I lost money just meeting for those consults and I still did not have the right attorney.

And you know that if you want someone fighting for you, you want to find the right attorney for you. So I just kept going until I could find that perfect pair. That came at a great expense for me. That alone.

this was a new world for me. I don’t know the lingo. I’ve never been in this situation. I don’t know what to ask. I don’t know what the process is. And it’s not only a lot emotionally when you’re going through those things, but having to then learn the systems of law and the order of how your attorney works and paperwork that’s due.

And the things I didn’t know then and I do know now is that essentially you would pay anywhere from a minimum of $3,500 to then book that attorney and that’s minimum. That’s for probably a baseline attorney. If you are in a higher situation or you have a higher income and you’re wanting to book a higher attorney, that’s going to be anywhere from about a $10,000 plus.

just booking them to come on and take your case. Then starts the process. And they, your attorneys are gonna explain to you that every single email you send, every single text, every phone call is gonna cost X amount of money. They might charge X amount per hour. They might, like an attorney that I use ended up rounding up another one kind of just calculated per minute and then charged me per minute. Everybody does it differently. But my point is,

Is it anytime that you have a question, anytime that you communicate or dialogue or have anything, an email sent, a PDF sent, that’s costing you money and it’s ticking, right? So then you get nervous because you’re like,

I don’t know what to say. And they tell me to put everything in one bulk email, but I have like three questions and I just sent this email and I have another one. And you are wrapped so much in your emotions because you’re navigating the situation. And most of these situations aren’t easy.

You’ve built this dream business of yours. You don’t want it to then take you out financially to where you can’t continue. Remember when we are in the industries that we are in,

we do these things day in and day out. But the people that we work with

don’t. So as a wedding photographer or a photo booth company or any of the things that I do, a basketball official, I have to remember that these people aren’t looking at it from my perspective. They also haven’t navigated a lot of these things like me. So their questions might seem silly to me because I hear them all the time, but to them it’s brand new. So when I was a client of my attorneys, they treated me very disrespectfully and that way.

How do you not know what this word means? How do you not know what that document is? And I just kept asking those questions and I was being charged for it. There wasn’t a lot of empathy

So the reason I want to do this podcast today is because there is a better way and there is a much more cost effective way. And this riles me up. It makes me so passionate, which is why I started this podcast to talk about these hard conversations that we’re not having in our individual lives and in our businesses and how we’re going to make it through that, how you’re going to find the right support, how you’re going to afford it, how you’re going to immensely and emotionally handle all this. And so this is what the dream doers podcast is for.

And then this is what today’s episode is specifically for. So did you know that there is a resource out there that is disrupting the traditional ⁓ route to attorneys like I just addressed with you, how you think you just, you got to Google or call that friend attorney … they’re going to direct you to somebody else and you’re going to put a booking fee down of a few thousand dollars and then you’re going to start this process and it’s going to be this big.

system that now you’re in and you’re having to navigate alone. And if you ask a question, heaven forbid you get charged. There is a program

who saw the need for disrupting that sort of system so that fairness, ⁓ minimal cost, and direct access for anyone in the United States to attorneys 24-7 and the resources can come at a fraction of that price.

They’re out with their buddies on Friday evening, and if they want a few free drinks that night, or they want to pay for a round of their friends’ drinks,

All they have to do is shoot you an email and you respond back to them and they just made enough money for full rounds of drinks for their friends that night.

have to ask questions because you’re on your own and you don’t know who to lean on so you, rightfully so, lean on your attorney you’ve paid for

and it comes at a cost.

this program I’m discussing today, for $2 a day, you have access to not just that one attorney, but an entire law firm. And this law firm, when you reach out and you say, today I need help with reviewing a contract that a client read lines, so can you review this? They send you the right attorney. So instead of having to sit like I did,

for eight, nine interviews to try to find the right attorney for that issue. This law firm, who’s been around for 25, 30 plus years, the dedicated law firm in your state specifically across the United States, you will be designated. They will send you the right attorney to answer those questions. So now it spares you

it spares you headache, heartache, and finances for no more than a penny after the $2 a day.

And then that’s starting out. There are other plans within this company. But here are some more situations. You might be at an event. Say, for instance, you’re photographing a couple on their wedding day and you’re near a pool and that bride happens to step back into the pool and fall in. And this is before her ceremony.

She’s now soaking wet and she is pissed because you told her during your portraits for her to walk with her almost husband.

and they fell into the pool. Now she’s livid. She just paid for hair, makeup, a gown that’s ruined, she has nothing. Her ceremony starts in an hour and a half. What do you do? You have, with this program, emergency access to call an attorney right away, especially if that person’s threatening to sue you and you have situations at hand now that you weren’t expecting and you weren’t prepared for. The beauty of this program is that you have the empowerment

and the education, the resources at your fingertips, instead of waiting until something happens and then panicking and not knowing what to do,

you are preventing. It’s preventative. So when something does arise, it’s in place and you know what to do. You know who to call. You have people on your side. And the empowerment for me, once I did jump ship and I hopped this fence and I booked ⁓ this program and this company.

I have this access to this law firm that I’m growing in relationship with, so I feel so empowered. That’s the biggest word for me. I feel empowered because when I’m talking to anyone who’s trying to take advantage of me in any capacity, I can just say, you know what, I’ll send my attorney this information and I’ll have them reach out to you. What does that do to the person you’re speaking with? ⁓ shoot, this person, this person means business, this person has…

support so we can’t take advantage of them and this is dealing with the law so we’re going to figure out how we can maybe communicate or work with this person a little better. That is so empowering for me to have that as a resource and to be able to say.

Jana Marie (13:53)
Okay, let’s switch gears a little bit and let’s consider this. Your kid’s playing a baseball game, slides into second base, breaks his leg. What are you gonna do? You’re gonna take your kid to the emergency room or to the doctor’s office, urgent care, whatever you need to do, and you feel empowered to do that because you have insurance set in place for your child to protect their bodies, right? Just like you would or auto insurance or anything else.

You would go get that handle because you can. And you know that you’re not gonna take your kid to the hospital and get charged hundreds of thousands of dollars. You have insurance in place that’s gonna help cover for most of that, and you’re just gonna have a copay fee. Okay, think about a seatbelt in a car. Are you gonna hop in your car to drive to your friend’s house and then get in a massive crash and think, man, I wish I had my seatbelt on. It would have kept me in my car instead of projecting me through the window.

to land a hundred feet outside, now I’ve broken my back, now I have all kinds of situations I wish I would have put my seatbelt on.

Or when you get in the car, are you thinking, preventative? Let’s put our seatbelt on just in case. Think about this program I’m talking about as insurance.

Jana Marie (15:06)
Most of us in our personal life aren’t going to wait until tragedy happens before we protect our dental, our physical body, our mental health, or anything like that. So then why in business do we think so much that we don’t need the same type of access? This is huge, you all. I want you to let that sink in. If you are a business owner, why then…

Do we not think the same way about protecting our families and our personal lives as we do our business?

Jana Marie (15:37)
Okay, okay, okay, you’re probably asking Jana to get to the point, like who is this company, like why aren’t you telling us? If you missed again episode 11, we announced at the very end that my friend Stacy Rich and I have started a passion project called Rich Life Alliance. This is a collaborative brand that her and I have put together. After going through the trenches, after going through the storms, after learning the hard way, we were like, you know what?

Businesses aren’t talking about this. We are not dialoguing. We do not understand our rights. And if you live on a border like we do in Missouri and Kansas where you might cross over and do work in another state, the state laws change sometimes dramatically. We don’t even know those state laws. So her and I really are passionate about

informing, educating, empowering other business owners and especially women, but also men and you know, in your personal lives too.

how to understand the system, how to feel empowered and protected, and to start this dialogue. This is dialogue we should be having because this can wipe your business out, friends. This is not something to take lightly. So ⁓ I will say that the company we’ve paired with is Legal Shield. Now, this all started because a businessman 50 years ago was hit by a woman on the road.

It was her fault and she ended up suing him and he’s thinking, wait, wait, wait, I have insurance for everything. But what do I do about this? Like I don’t have insurance to help me with the law. Like she’s suing me. What do I do? And he knew in that moment, the same way Stacy and I did when we went through something hard,

I want to protect other people. And not only do I want to protect them, I want to protect them at a fraction of the price because I don’t want us to get stuck in this hamster wheel of a court system that’s been set up.

And if we don’t know anything about it, we get stuck in it and we get taken advantage of and it can straight up wipe us out our whole lives, our whole businesses. It can take you out guys.

Jana Marie (17:35)
So the guy that started this company said, look, I’m going to disrupt this system. I want to create something just like Amazon’s doing, just like Netflix, Hulu, Disney. Let’s offer for $2 a day access to all of these same things. You know what? We’ll team up with law firms that are just as passionate. We will team up with the right resources. We’ll provide all of it to everybody, the documentation that they have to find.

online themselves or when hiring an attorney that the attorney is going to send them and charge them for so let’s just go ahead and provide all of these resources to people in America so that they don’t have to go through this.

Jana Marie (18:17)
Let’s talk about some of these benefits you get when you sign up with us under Rich Life Alliance who’s partnering with Legal Shield. And listen, we mean it when we say we’re building an alliance. We want to get all of our friends protected in businesses locally and across America. Here’s some of these benefits. Consultation and research. Designated consultations to the right attorneys in the specific area that you need support with.

letters or phone calls to

document reviews,

collection letters, trademark and copyright, employee handbook reviews, IRS audit, legal services, trial time, 25 % off if you are a member with them. If you do need further help in court or at a higher level or something that they might not cover, they refer you out to their partnered attorneys in your local area and you get a 25 % off discount.

So if you are going the traditional route like I

I paid in full. I could have at least been referred out and saved 25 % if those attorneys couldn’t help. And the best part is that there are Member Perks. Like most things, you can access a whole section of this app that’s getting you discounts to Disney when you do your family trip. That’s getting you a discount on your T-Mobile bill.

That’s getting you discounts at all the places that you’re already shopping. So whenever you’re already paying for these things and you’re getting discounts on your phone plan every month, that money you’re saving is paying for this plan for you to have

legal access 24 seven. That’s so empowering for free. Now, again, with a minimum of a dollar a day for your personal life and two dollars a day for your

business to be protected. Wouldn’t that be so cool if you could get that for free? Most of the people that I work with and myself, it’s covered. We did two concerts this fall that we booked a few weeks ago and we saved so much money it’s paying for a few months of membership to have access to all this. So it’s a no-brainer for me. And this is why we’re really passionate about talking about these things. Now there’s so many other perks and benefits. So if you’re interested,

Definitely ask your questions in the comments. Definitely reach

in mind, I’m still a small business owner. jannamarie.co is kind of my umbrella to my businesses. I’m a photographer. I teach other small businesses how to visually connect your heart with your brand through photos and graphics. I train on how to use Canva. I’ve got courses and education for businesses over here. I also have a photo booth company. And then now I’ve tethered in this podcast.

to my business, janamarie.co, talking about all of these things, business related, personal related, how to get through all the storms of life and navigate it

how to do it successfully so that you don’t drown. And I want you to feel empowered across all of those worlds,

now we’ve added our passion project, Rich Life Alliance, and that’s to…

Again, all encompass help the lives that you’re living from walking out your door in the morning, taking your kids to school, driving to work, to running your businesses. And all of that needs this dialogue because we’re living within the laws that we don’t even know we’re living in. So I hope today that you feel extra empowered. I hope that this started some curiosity about the dialogue that we need to be having. Seriously, there is no question that’s.

off limits. Feel free to ask anything. I’ll connect you with the right person, whether it’s my business partner, whether it’s some of the millionaires above us that are teaching us these same things that they’ve been through and they’re trying to help empower us. And on top of that, if you could help your friends be protected from the law and your small business friends and also make money referring them to this, doesn’t it make sense again? If you’re already in the network of your

industry and you’re already doing what you’re doing and you can just say, hey, I would love for you to know about these services and you can refer that out and help protect them, make money as well. It just is a no brainer. So we would love to talk to you more about how to partner with us in our alliance, how to be protected of the business and how to protect you and your loved ones in your family life.

Jana Marie (22:39)
Listen, I want you to learn from my mistakes so that you don’t have to repeat them. If you’re a dream doer, you cannot afford to build without protecting yourself. You’ve worked too hard to let one mistake take it all away. If you want to learn more about how I protect my business, I’ll link the info in the show notes. It’s changed everything for me. Make sure to like and subscribe across all my podcast channels and YouTube so you don’t miss a single beat with new episodes. Until next time.

Get yourself protected, girl.