Running a business has a way of keeping you permanently focused on what's in front of you. There's always a client to serve, an offer to launch, a marketing strategy to figure out. And somewhere in all of that forward momentum, the backend of your business quietly collects dust.
The legal side especially.
Contracts get set up once and never revisited. Website policies get copied from somewhere and forgotten. Corporate filings pile up on the mental to-do list. Contractor arrangements stay casual because things have been fine so far.
Until they're not.
There's no wrong time to do a proper business audit.
If you're reading this in January, do it now. If you're reading it in September, same answer.
But there's something about a season change, particularly spring, that creates a natural mental reset. The kind of energy that makes you want to open the windows, clear out what's not working, and set things up properly.
So consider this your permission slip, whatever month you're in, to stop treating the legal foundation of your business like something you'll get to eventually. Eventually has a way of arriving at the worst possible moment, usually right after something has already gone wrong.
Here's exactly where to start.
Review and Refresh your Client Contract
Thrilling stuff, I know. But this is the one that matters most.
Your business has almost certainly evolved since you last set up your contracts. Maybe you've raised your prices. Maybe you've shifted your offers, changed your delivery format, or started working with a totally different type of client. Your contracts need to reflect who you are right now, not who you were 18 months ago when you wrote something up in a hurry before onboarding your first client.
At minimum, open your current client agreement and check these four things:
Your payment terms. Are your deposit amounts, payment schedules, and late fee policies clearly spelled out? "Payment due upon completion" is not a payment policy. It's a wish.
Your refund and cancellation policy. If you've had any issues with this, could these terms be tightened?
Your scope of work. What is included in your services, specifically? And more importantly, what is not? If your contract doesn't draw that line clearly, scope creep will draw it for you, usually in the most inconvenient way possible.
If your contract is missing any of these, or if what's in there feels vague, that's a gap worth closing now, before a situation forces you to close it under pressure. If you think your client contract needs an overhaul, check out all my industry specific and customizable client contract templates here.
Assess your Client Relationships
Are you actually working with clients who are aligned with where you're going?
Not just clients who pay. Clients who respect your process, show up prepared, follow your policies, and make you feel good about the work you do.
A business audit is a natural moment to look at this. Review your current roster and notice where there's friction. Are there clients who consistently push back on your boundaries, question your rates, or treat your policies as suggestions? And if so, is that a client problem or a contract problem?
Often it's both.
Contracts don't just protect you after something goes wrong. They filter your clients before they ever sign. A well-written agreement sets the tone for the whole relationship. It signals that you run a professional operation, that your time has value, and that your policies exist for a reason. The right clients respect that. The wrong ones self-select out.
If your onboarding process doesn't currently include a proper signed agreement, or if the one you're using is more of a loose outline than an actual contract, that is worth addressing. It affects who you attract and how they behave once they're working with you. Check out this post where I dive deeper into client onboarding.
Update your Website Terms of Use and Privacy Policy
Quick question: do you have a privacy policy on your website?
If the answer is no, or "I think so, maybe, it might be copied from someone else's site," this is the most important item on this entire list. I've created customizable privacy policy templates here, and they are bundled with website terms of use because you should have both.
A privacy policy is the only document you are legally required to have as a business owner. Not a client contract, not terms of use, not a disclaimer. Your privacy policy is the one thing the law actually mandates, and most entrepreneurs either don't have one or have one that hasn't been touched since they first launched.
If you collect emails, take payments, run any kind of program, or sell anything online, privacy law applies to you. In Canada, that means PIPEDA and provincial requirements. In the US, it's a combination of federal guidelines and state-level laws like the California Consumer Privacy Act. The specifics vary depending on where you and your clients are located, but the core requirement is the same across the board: you need to tell people what data you're collecting, how you're using it, and how they can ask you to remove it.
If your privacy policy was written by someone else, copied from a random website, or hasn't been looked at in a couple of years, it very likely doesn't reflect how you're actually running your business right now. That's a problem worth fixing before it becomes a bigger one.
While you're doing this audit, check two other things on your website as well.
Your Terms of Use. If you sell digital products, courses, or programs, your Terms of Use govern what buyers can and can't do with your content. They're what you point to if someone tries to resell your program, share their login, or dispute a purchase. Without them, you're relying on goodwill, and goodwill is not a legal strategy.
Your disclaimers. Particularly if you offer any form of business, financial, or health coaching, clear disclaimers protect you from liability claims that can come from unexpected directions.
Think of your website policies like the smoke detectors in your house. Tedious to deal with? Yes. Easy to ignore until something goes wrong? Also yes. Worth doing anyway? Without question.
Check Your Email List Compliance
If you are growing your email list, there are rules around how you collect those contacts, what you can send them, and how they can get off your list. The rules differ depending on where you and your subscribers are located, but the underlying principle is the same: you need permission before you land in someone's inbox.
In Canada, that's governed by CASL, the Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation, which is one of the stricter email laws in the world. CASL requires express opt-in consent, meaning someone has to actively and explicitly agree to receive emails from you. Pre-checked boxes, vague sign-up language, or adding people to your list because they bought something or handed you a business card doesn't cut it under CASL. You also need a working unsubscribe mechanism in every email you send, and you need to honour those requests promptly.
In the US, the CAN-SPAM Act takes a softer approach. It doesn't require opt-in consent upfront, but it does require that every commercial email includes a clear way to unsubscribe, an honest subject line, and a valid physical mailing address. Ignoring unsubscribe requests or using deceptive subject lines can result in serious fines. I always recommend implementing active and explicit opt-in - I think it generates more goodwill overall with your community.
The audit version of this is simple. Check that your sign-up forms are clear about what people are agreeing to receive. Make sure your unsubscribe process actually works. And if you have people on your list whose consent you can't confidently account for, that's worth cleaning up. A smaller, properly consented list will always outperform a bloated one that puts you at legal risk.
If You're Incorporated, Review Your Corporate Filings
This one is for my Canadians.
If you've incorporated your business either federally or provincially, you are required to file annual returns and keep certain information current. This includes your registered office address, your director information, and in some provinces, your annual return itself.
Missing a filing deadline means late fees at minimum. In some cases, your corporation can be dissolved by the registry without much notice, which creates a whole separate headache you do not want to deal with mid-year.
Log into your federal or provincial registry, confirm everything is current, and set a calendar reminder for next year. Twenty minutes now saves a significant amount of stress later.
Review Any Contractor or Team Agreements
If you've brought on a VA, an OBM, a designer, a social media manager, or anyone else who does work for your business, even on a casual basis, you need a written agreement in place.
A proper Independent Contractor Agreement covers their scope of work, payment terms, confidentiality, and who owns the work product when the engagement ends. That last point matters more than most people realize. If you hired someone to build something for your business, like a course, a template, or a framework, and there's no contract specifying that the intellectual property belongs to you, the legal default may not be what you're assuming.
If any of your working relationships are currently running on a handshake and a good vibe, this is a good time to get something in writing.
The Bottom Line
None of this is the exciting part of running a business. You didn't start your company so you could spend a beautiful Tuesday afternoon reviewing refund clauses.
But every item on this checklist exists to protect the thing you've worked really hard to build. And it takes a lot less time than you think when you have the right resources in place.
A contract you can trust changes how you show up with clients. It changes how they show up with you. It removes the second-guessing, the awkward money conversations, and the low-grade anxiety that follows every new booking when you're not sure if you're actually covered.
If your contracts are due for a refresh, I've drafted legal contract templates specifically for Canadian coaches, freelancers, and service providers. You can grab them individually or in bundles here and have them customized and ready to use in under an hour.
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