ep 2

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Okay, you've got the idea. You've even made a little money and now you're wondering, is this a real business? Do I need an LLC or a contract or a whole legal team? If you've ever felt that poll to start something of your own, but immediately got overwhelmed by the what ifs and the what do I even do

firsts, today's episode is for you,. Amber Gilormo, attorney and mom of five is back. And this time we're talking about the legal side of starting a business as a mom from when to make it official to how to protect your family without overcomplicating things.

This episode is packed with real talk and practical tips .

is one that you'll want to take notes for.

My name is Krissy Bold. I'm a stay at home mom to two little boys, and this is Mom's Guide to Finding Herself. You know, I am all about helping moms reconnect with who they are outside of motherhood. And for a lot of us that starts with following those little creative sparks. Maybe it's baking or crafting or finally saying yes to that business [00:01:00] idea. That just won't leave you alone. But once that spark turns into an actual thing, we freeze because suddenly it's not just a hobby anymore, it's a business. And that gets really intimidating, really fast. That's why I invited Amber Gilormo back for another episode.

She's not only a mom of five, but also an attorney and the founder of the Boutique Lawyer, where she helps women protect their peace and their profits with simple, approachable legal tools. Amber breaks down what you actually need to do legally when starting a business. What matters right away. What can wait and how to make sure your personal life stays protected.

If you've been feeling stuck in the, is this even legit phase? You are not alone and you're in the right place. Let's get into it.

Krissy: Amber, thank you so much for coming back today. I'm so excited to learn about your expertise in the fields that you work in with the moms that you work with, and how you can help our audience [00:02:00] find out who they are.

Amber Gilormo: I love a mom with a side hustle and a mom trying to do everything, so I'm so excited to chat about this topic.

Krissy: Amazing. So a lot of moms, when they're trying to figure out their thing, they maybe start as a hobby. Like, I don't know, maybe they're crocheting and they think, you know what? Maybe I can start selling this. And before you know it, it's a business, but. We get stuck in the what ifs or the what should I dos and the big scary, I don't know how to make this into a business.

What are the things that you actually legally should be doing to look out for yourself before you just start dabbling?

Amber Gilormo: You know why I love moms who start businesses because, In my experience, I, I generally work with almost exclusively women.

Krissy: Yeah.

Amber Gilormo: a big majority of them are moms.

Krissy: Yeah.

Amber Gilormo: They are, we are [00:03:00] very risk averse people. Which makes us a little more mindful

Krissy: when

we

Amber Gilormo: get started doing something that we wanna do it in a way like we're. Doing it right, quote unquote,

Krissy: Hmm.

Amber Gilormo: we don't wanna like expose our homes and our families to other stressors. We want this to be like revenue generating and we enjoy doing it, but we don't wanna have like all these other problems that can come along with like, starting a business for

Krissy: example

Amber Gilormo: or making money off of a hobby. and that's like. Really great because you approach it a little more intentionally, but on the

Krissy: flip side

Amber Gilormo: it like can actually prevent you from doing the thing that you're capable of doing because

Krissy: you are

Amber Gilormo: so risk averse. So, one of the things I love to do is like, help women through that process.

Krissy: That's amazing because we do have those mindsets and then they stop us. They stop us dead in our tracks, and then our dreams just live in our heads. So tell me more about what your practice [00:04:00] actually is and, and what do you do with your work?

Amber Gilormo: So I'm a small business lawyer for online businesses creative service providers, makers, founders. I help them start. On a solid legal foundation. And then I tell all of my clients this, but every move you make in business, there is a corresponding legal step you need to take to protect you. And so I just support them on that journey. when we are helping like new businesses it's. Interesting because everybody has very similar questions. And they can, they kinda surround like the whole, do I need a LLC? Do I need a legal entity? Do I need a license to do this? Do I need, you know, just these very basic questions which are. Incredibly important to ask

Krissy: and to have

Amber Gilormo: answered correctly

Krissy: for you

Amber Gilormo: But so many businesses start just like an individual doing something that's actually what's called a sole proprietorship. Like

Krissy: [00:05:00] that's a real

Amber Gilormo: entity. You know, you don't have to have like all the bells and whistles legally to get started.

And

in

Krissy: fact

Amber Gilormo: like. You really should make sure that your idea is something that you can make money off of before you go and spend, you know, thousands of dollars protecting it.

Krissy: Yeah.

Amber Gilormo: so, you know, I just try to, uh, provide people like super practical information so that they can apply it to like the real life business

Krissy: that they're building So when in the process should you start doing those things? Like, and, and, and I guess the second question is like, what are the things like is it when you start making money, is it when you start making significant money? Is it like where in the journey do we start making moves?

Amber Gilormo: so I moved to north Idaho recently last year, like last summer, and

Krissy: my favorite

Amber Gilormo: thing about this area is. There are so many small businesses, like I've never seen so many farm stands in my [00:06:00] life. Literally we have a group from my church where like we all, there's a buy sell trade group and people are making like necklaces, earrings

Krissy: Awesome.

Amber Gilormo: uh, crocheting, like they're doing all the things and they're making money off of it. A lot of the women. Do not have like legal entities, they're just selling locally. However, there are like a few that have realized like, Hey, I can sell this beyond just like my local community,

turned it into. A business like they have an LLC formed. They have, you know, whether, if they're doing like farm stands, sometimes you need a license to do that.

Krissy: Yeah.

Amber Gilormo: like cottage bakery it, you know, just depending on what it is. I think the answer to your question isn't revenue based. It's goal based. So if your goal is to just. Make a couple hundred dollars a month to pay, like the utilities, like, do you wanna take that off your family's plate, which [00:07:00] is totally reasonable and like a couple hundred dollars a month.

Like you can invest that in a high yield savings account. You know, like you

Krissy: Yeah.

Amber Gilormo: much with a few hundred dollars a month. Like that's, that's a good goal. If that's your goal. Do you really need to go through thousand dollars of like legal setup, thousands of dollars of legal setup for that particular thing? Uh,

Krissy: It's up to you

Amber Gilormo: Like

Krissy: It's not

Amber Gilormo: really the end all be all for me. Like as a lawyer, if your goal is to sell even to your local regional community, citywide, countywide then I would say yeah, you know, you're opening up your business to more individuals like your, expanding your risk level. So if as your like eyeballs. Get more eyeballs on your offers and what you're selling, then it becomes a bigger priority for you to form an, at least at minimum, like a legal entity that separates your personal assets of earning power from your [00:08:00] business's debts and responsibilities. Then that's normally done through like a limited liability company or called an LLC formation.

Krissy: That's so interesting that it's about the eyeballs, about the people that are in there. So what are the risks if we choose to, like I'm assuming that a lot of people who are putting themselves on Instagram and maybe selling just here and there, like you don't know how many eyeballs you have. That sounds like it's a big risk.

Like what are the, what are the risks?

Amber Gilormo: Yeah. So if you're marketing on social media, for example, you're right, like you have. Infinite possibilities, right?

Krissy: Yeah.

Amber Gilormo: like globally, but more, more often than not. What's is interesting about like the Instagram algorithm, it is very location based. So it will serve your content to people in your region first, and then if they interact, it goes wider than that.

And like, it's one of the factors of the

Krissy: Yeah.

Amber Gilormo: And I, I am a testament to this. I had so many clients in the southeast when I lived there, like in Atlanta and [00:09:00] surrounding Southeast, and I never like met them, but they found me on Instagram.

Krissy: Yeah.

Amber Gilormo: I've moved to like the inland Pacific Northwest, I have so many people who are in Washington, like

Krissy: Oh, interesting.

Amber Gilormo: Yeah. And so I'm like, okay, this, this is part of the Instagram algorithm lore that I believe. Location based, just 'cause I've experienced this, at least for me. But anyways, as you get more people looking at your services and looking at the things that you're like trying to sell, like whether it's something you made or something you can do, if you interact with people, like if you are, like for example, a hairstylist, if you do nails, absolutely need to get an

Krissy: LLC

Amber Gilormo: Even if you're just doing it locally because have the. The nature of your offer can impact people. Like if you cut somebody's hand, they're gonna get upset about it, right?

Krissy: Yeah.

Amber Gilormo: We don't

Krissy: Yeah.

Amber Gilormo: to like sue you [00:10:00] for something individually, like we want our businesses responsibilities to

Krissy: Yeah.

Amber Gilormo: businesses. Liabilities like we want it to be just on the business, not on like the money we have as a family in our savings account, right?

Krissy: Yeah.

Amber Gilormo: And so that's how you separate them out is by that like legal entity.

And then of course you have to maintain the entity.

so make sure you just pay yourself and your business stuff out of your business account and

Krissy: Yeah.

Amber Gilormo: of, you know, your personal account and vice versa. We don't wanna mix the funds.

Krissy: That sounds tricky because we're like shopping on Amazon and we're doing all the things and what credit card does it come from, but it's definitely an important thing to keep in mind. Now, we could go on forever about all of the layers. Of things that we could do. I know that you sell products that help people protect themselves through their website creation and all of the things that go into that and their trademarks and all of the other pieces.

Now, can we talk about like a hierarchy [00:11:00] of what's like a must do? What's like a nice to do and like when you should think about it?

Amber Gilormo: Yeah, it's definitely an immediate needs versus future needs kind of. Schema when you look at it and you decide, what do I do first? And the, I was gonna say my most asked question is, where do I start? And to that point, this is exactly what you asked. You start with the immediate like of like, interaction between you and your customer or your clients.

So if I have a, first and foremost, get a legal entity first. They're relatively inexpensive and you can set it up yourself like most. You can go to your Secretary of State's website and do most in most states, and you can file it online. There's a couple, a handful of states where you still have to do like paper filings but most of them, you can do it online and it's relatively inexpensive.

There are

Krissy: And you mean an LLC by that? Right. Okay.

Amber Gilormo: like form your limited [00:12:00] liability company to insulate, you know, your personal from your debt, uh, businesses, your personal, excuse me, to insulate your personal assets from your business' responsibilities. That the limited liability company is like one of the best ways to go about it. And it's relatively quick, relatively inexpensive in terms of like cost. It can be a couple hundred dollars in Georgia. It, I think last time I checked it was like $50 to file. And then you have renewal fees. So, there are some exceptions like California, that's a little more pricey. Go California. You know, we, they have special rules. But you know, it's a really great step. And then beyond that, if you interact with people, you need to protect that customer facing point of contact with your business first. So that normally looks like contracts. So it can look like putting terms of purchase online. If somebody is buying something through your like. store.

Krissy: Yeah.

Amber Gilormo: which by the way, Etsy's policies protect Etsy and we need our own policies [00:13:00] as people selling things to protect us.

Krissy: Good to know. 'cause that feels very official having an Etsy store. It feels like you're protected in a lot of ways.

Amber Gilormo: it does and it's a big deal.

Krissy: Yeah.

Amber Gilormo: but, you know, if we're gonna like, send people marketing emails, we still have to have our own like, privacy policy and, and make sure that we're doing, following all the rules still for us.

Krissy: Yeah.

Amber Gilormo: So for like your customer facing stuff is really important. And then, uh, for long term like growth and business protection, that's where those like intellectual property protections come into play.

Like

Krissy: Yeah.

Amber Gilormo: copyrights. 'cause it protects the i the content that you're creating and your brand identifiers. So it's just incredibly important, like as if you wanna keep doing this and you wanna keep growing it, that's when you look

Krissy: Okay.

Amber Gilormo: kind of like. Future proofing, asset building things like trademarks and copyrights.

Krissy: Wow. Okay. So lots of layers, but we can start chipping away at them one at a [00:14:00] time. Now, one thing that I know firsthand that keeps people from filing an LLC is making their address public. Can we talk about that?

Amber Gilormo: Yeah, definitely. Nobody wants that

Krissy: Right.

Amber Gilormo: as invasive and as little privacy as we have these days. 'cause you can, when you Google a business, like you absolutely don't want your home address popping up.

Krissy: Right.

Amber Gilormo: so one of the easiest ways to go about this is in, depending on your state, 'cause some states will have different rules for this.

Krissy: Mm-hmm.

Amber Gilormo: like a virtual office somewhere.

Krissy: Okay.

Amber Gilormo: For example I can go and I can like. By to UPS and I can get like a, you know, a physical mailing address and sometimes you can use that depending on your state. And that's like a really affordable way to go about it. And then there's like virtual work, coworking spaces, virtual offices you can buy or you can go the route of like a registered agent. A registered [00:15:00] agent is somebody who accepts like mail on your behalf. And that is the publicly facing address. for your business and your

Krissy: Okay.

Amber Gilormo: uh, when you do your filing. And those

Krissy: Right.

Amber Gilormo: are really can be really affordable. Like there's several like national companies who do that. So you have options,

Krissy: Yeah.

Amber Gilormo: have to use your home address and in fact you shouldn't. So

Krissy: Yeah.

Amber Gilormo: like PO box it and then sometimes when you're filling out like LLC formations, they'll have like your, they call it domicile and that's for your home address. And so

Krissy: Okay.

Amber Gilormo: be separate and, and it's not, that part normally isn't like. The public side, but your business has to have like some way to receive mail, but that's not always for each state.

Like, so the

Krissy: Yeah.

Amber Gilormo: thing, and I think the safest like piece of like legal tip to take would be look at a registered agent. If you're worried about having your home address out there, they're relatively inexpensive and that is something you can absolutely put on any filings you [00:16:00] make with the state so that your like stuff is still confidential.

Krissy: Such a great tip. Now, another thing you touched on with like the Etsy thing. Is when we join something that's already existing, like Etsy or maybe like there's travel agents that you can join, like their agency and, but you're still independent with them, so it's still like your side hustle, your small business.

Where do liabilities lie when you're in this, like when you feel protected by this umbrella, like do you need your own insurance? Do you need all these other pieces with it?

Amber Gilormo: Yeah, with that. Like Etsy is just one, but there's other marketplaces, like

Krissy: Yeah.

Amber Gilormo: and that kind of stuff, right? So like you said, when we sell on that, we do kind of feel like we're part of this larger company. Like we're still kind of safe. It's just a small thing, you know?

Krissy: Mm-hmm.

Amber Gilormo: it's a different like frame of mind, but at the end of the day, we are still a business doing business.

So, one of the questions I was asked by [00:17:00] a who sells almost exclusively on Etsy but she made. Baby blankets was like, what kind of warning labels do I need on my baby blankets? Right. Which is a wonderful question and a question a lot of people don't ask because if you go buy a baby blanket from Target,

Krissy: Right.

Amber Gilormo: it's gonna have a label on there that's like risk of suffocation and it

Krissy: Yeah.

Amber Gilormo: stuff on there.

Right.

Krissy: Right.

Amber Gilormo: All of these things to think about. So my answer is that it just depends on where your business is located and what you sell uh, in terms of the protections that you need. Actually a great opportunity. And one of the best reasons to like schedule a consult with a lawyer who's

Krissy: Yeah.

Amber Gilormo: in like your state where you're doing business, is to get some of those questions answered.

And cr and most like lawyers who focus on online businesses and people selling in marketplaces, they can give you kind of like a to-do list that's tailored to your [00:18:00] business. So that's a, that's one of the best uses of like. a small business is gonna get started and they wanna feel safe, that initial call can really help you, like take a mental load off and say, this is my priority for me.

Because

Krissy: Yeah.

Amber Gilormo: is pretty different, right? So we wanna make sure we're tailoring it to like the business itself.

Krissy: Okay, so here's a question that might be a little like picky, but I think we have to be picky when it's like lawyery the stuff.

Amber Gilormo: yeah.

Krissy: If you are working with a registered agent that's online and it's like in a different state, where is your business being? Like what state laws should you go to? What lawyers should you go to?

Amber Gilormo: Okay, so, what with a registered agent, they have to be, you have to register your business in a state, and normally it's gonna be the state where you live because of like

Krissy: Okay.

Amber Gilormo: So your registered agent that you choose should have an office in your state. [00:19:00] You don't wanna pick a registered agent that doesn't, uh,

Krissy: Got it.

Amber Gilormo: your registered agent to have the office in your state. There's national companies. I just want, there's one that's top of mind. It's like Northwest registered agent or something like that, but

Krissy: Yeah, I've seen that one. Yeah.

Amber Gilormo: it's advertises everywhere. They have offices. So many states. I think it's all of 'em. I'm not exactly sure about that. Don't quote

Krissy: Yeah. Yeah.

Amber Gilormo: they, they actually have a location where somebody is manning the desk.

Like they have somebody there who can receive legal proceedings and mail on your behalf. So that's where you sign up. Now the other side of that question is like, if I'm selling online, like. And I'm selling to somebody who's located in California, but my business is registered in Texas, for example.

Like which laws do apply? Like what do I have to follow? And the answer is. All of 'em, so both of them. And it's really important to understand your market, what you're doing and how to [00:20:00] comply with those roles.

Krissy: Yeah.

Amber Gilormo: again, like I'm probably whispering like nightmares to moms, like trying to figure out all the, in, you know, all the

Krissy: Yeah.

Amber Gilormo: intricacies involved with starting a business.

And that's why I think like, let that piece stop you, like fines. A lawyer, you can literally type in online business lawyer in Google or you can type in small business lawyer, right? We want somebody who's like, has experience with the type of business we sell, and I promise if like the first three people you talk to don't feel like a good fit, there is a lawyer out there who's done something for. For you before, like for somebody just like you, you know? And that can just take off such a huge weight off of like that mental load. Like, how do I figure all this out? Like somebody can actually like, give you your to-do list. Like this is what I would recommend for you. And that's the kind of like initial consult that can be really helpful to like get started.

Krissy: Amazing. Now, how much do these consults usually cost?

Amber Gilormo: Uh, it depends on the lawyer.

Krissy: Of [00:21:00] course.

Amber Gilormo: I, I mean, I can just speak like from my kind of frame of reference. I do have a lot of colleagues, like other lawyers that I'm, who, who serve these exact kinds of businesses. And our hourly rates I've seen range anywhere from like $150 an hour. To $500 an hour. So it's kind of like in that range.

Now, when we go outside of that and you're like a corporate client trying to reach like a more medium to large size like business lawyer who serves like, I can use those hourly rates.

Krissy: Yeah.

Amber Gilormo: rates can be for other, like larger companies, they can be thousands of dollars an hour. a small business lawyer should be able to like schedule a consult for you for, you know, a few hundred dollars. I would say budget that, and I think that's a really good use of your like, mental capacity, like whatever kind of what do you call it, bandwidth. You've, you have ready to like explore that option.

That's a great place to start.[00:22:00]

Krissy: That's fantastic Vice. I agree. There's that. You can't put a price on some things like the, the amount of time that you would be saving yourself from the Google Rabbit hole, and then the questions that you don't know how to answer. The last thing I wanna bring up is the shortcuts.

Like the chat GPT of it all, or the Googling of the terms and conditions and the privacy policies and all of these things that you just wanna copy and paste. Is there any shortcut we can take that's realistically legal,

Amber Gilormo: Yeah. You know, what is that saying? Like when you're in school, like no question is a bad

Krissy: right?

Amber Gilormo: What is it? is that the phrase?

Krissy: Yeah. Yeah, that's it. Yeah.

Amber Gilormo: Ask the question. So I would never tell somebody not to go Google a question. Like if you think of the question, go Google it. Go look it up on chat, GPT, see what it says. I really think especially with like the advances in generative AI tools like chat, GPT, [00:23:00] it's a great place to start. Don't know if I'm doing my profession a disservice by saying that I will not tell you to write a contract with it or write a legal brief with it. Of course not, because like lawyers have actually gotten fined using chat GPT to write a legal brief and it cited like fake cases. It just made a bunch of stuff up.

Krissy: Yeah.

Amber Gilormo: it's a great place to start. You know, Google has like their AI too, like their

Krissy: Yeah.

Amber Gilormo: summary that pops up. You know, it's just searching the web and there's a lot of good information out there. There's a lot of legal blogs that it pulls from. So I think that that's a great place to start and ask the question too. Especially if you're like, what kind of things do I need? Like, you can ask chat, GPT that, and it can give you a framework,

Krissy: Yeah.

Amber Gilormo: wanna say like, rely a hundred percent on that because chat GPT can give you like a to-do list. It's two miles long when you maybe just need like five to 10 steps. So I think it's, you know, very important to curate that. But [00:24:00] start there. It's a great place to start. It can just asking those questions where a lot of people will ignore them is a huge like and then we do, in my business, in my line of work, we have a, uh, like contract template shop to get you started for like,

Krissy: Yeah.

Amber Gilormo: specific, uh, contracts you may need if you're offering goods or services for sale online. And there's others like me out there. But we are just, you know, trying to make legal more accessible to

Krissy: Yeah.

Amber Gilormo: 'cause there is such a high barrier to entry with. Legal protection like historically, you know, it's always been a little more expensive and kind of hard to find a good fit. And so there's a big wave of new lawyers. And I wouldn't say I am a new lawyer, but I'm certainly in the way we're

Krissy: Yeah.

Amber Gilormo: these resources that are like more accessible and easy to use and understand.

So we are out there, we are trying to help you

Krissy: Yeah.

Amber Gilormo: it easier for you to get started and do so [00:25:00] like protected.

Krissy: Fantastic. So it sounds like you're giving the green light to moms to start dabbling, start practicing. Use the free resources you can find out there just to get you started, but. When you get to a point where you have more eyeballs on you, more liability out there, there are reasonably priced resources that can help you not only figure out what to do, but like copy and paste.

If your templates are so easy to apply to your own business, your own website, and I feel totally protected by it because it was written by you, not by a robot that is pulling from who knows what.

Amber Gilormo: Yeah. Well I appreciate that. Thanks for saying that. We

Krissy: Yeah.

Amber Gilormo: hard on it, so, you know, that's. It's kind of our job, so

Krissy: Yeah.

Amber Gilormo: that. It would be silly of me not to mention this. We have launched a free digital magazine that is made for to help you get legally protected and we [00:26:00] release them in quarters.

So the, uh, next one is coming out here in just like a couple weeks. Uh, and it's kind of been like from my desk to yours just. of things that you should take care of for the quarter from a legal perspective. And we kind of partner with different online experts you know, financial advisors, and we get tips from them and we stick 'em in there.

And in this, uh, Q4 issue there is a, uh. Tax checklist of like when you should think about forming an S-corp. And that's one of those big, kind of like, people kind of have heard of what an S-corp is. You don't really know

Krissy: Yeah.

Amber Gilormo: one. And so we partnered with somebody to kind of help us guide through that and guide through that analysis.

So it's exciting

Krissy: That sounds like such an incredible resource for free. Yeah. That's mega amazing. Well, Amber, tell us where we can connect with you and, and learn more from you and about you.

Amber Gilormo: Well, I am active on social media on one platform, [00:27:00] Instagram at at the Boutique Lawyer. I love sharing tips. And Just, you know, kind of funny videos about the things you should watch out for, things to do. And then of course, at my website, the boutique lawyer.com, uh, we have all different kinds of resources for small and online business owners to get started in scale.

Krissy: Amazing. Well, thank you so much for your time and for sharing all of this information with us. I really appreciate it.

Amber Gilormo: Thanks. Thanks for having me.

If you learn something from this episode, go ahead and let me know in the comments or the reviews, or send me a DM over on Instagram at Mom Identity Project. While you're here.

Go ahead and subscribe to the podcast and leave a five star rating. If you have a mom friend who's been thinking about starting a business, go ahead and share this episode with them to make their life a little bit easier. Now, what if motherhood came with actual performance reviews? Like you'd sit down with a clipboard and get scored on snack distribution and emotional regulation, and how many times you said, because I said so. Well, in the next episode, I'm giving a totally biased, [00:28:00] completely ridiculous mom report card.

And yes, there are bonus awards involved. Until then, remember, you are an amazing mom just the way you are.