EP159. Kelly Bagla: The Queen of Business Law!

Tony: Revenue Chat episode 159. Hey guys, Tony DUrso here and I have to say thank you, thanks a million, a million downloads that is, go to TonyDurso.com/tv and read all about the exciting next adventure we have in store for you, that’s TonyDurso.com/tv and once again, thanks a million.
Intro: This is revenue chat Radio, your host Tony DUrso, interviewing successful entrepreneurs and giving you actionable advice and insights, let’s rev it up.
Tony: Welcome to Revenue Chat, I’m your host Tony DUrso, and I am now on television as the Tony DUrso TV show, I broadcast over many platforms such as Amazon, Apple, Roku, The Voice America TV network and others, that’s over 100 million screens, you’ll see these on my mobile app at Tonydurso.com/mobile click that from your cell and on this app, you’ll see and hear my other weekly talk shows, full of great insight from successful people, so please go ahead and download it at Tonydurso.com/mobile also stick around to the very end for a little story on something I really love, I wonder what that could be?
Tony: Alright Revenue Crew, let’s rev it up, here we go. Today we set the stage for revenue chat with Kelly Bagla, the queen of business law, Kelly is an author, inventor and top woman entrepreneur, she has a highly successful book ”Go Legal Yourself” and she’s going to share some simple tips with you on how you can become successful as a business owner, Kelly welcome to revenue chat.
Kelly: Well thank you Tony, it’s such a pleasure being here.
Tony: Kelly, it’s my honor and pleasure to have you here, and I’d love to know, with everything you’re doing in your life, what made you get into the legal side of the business world?
Kelly: I have to say Tony, I’m going to be very honest with you, I was literally born to be an attorney, and I know that might sound…
Tony: I have never heard that one before.
Kelly: Exactly, I was just going to say it might sound a bit off, but I was I truly feel I was born to be an attorney, I was 5 years old when I first decided I wanted to be a lawyer, I had no idea what a lawyer was it must have been a show I was watching in England hence the funny accent, born and raised there, and it must have really intrigued me because I was watching this person on TV, I believe the show used to the called the Queen’s Counsel, and everything that this attorney did, the outcome of it was just absolutely wonderful, he won each and every case.
So I kind of stuck to my guns and I thought well this is exactly what I want to be, as I was going through law school, I did know that I wanted to focus on business law Tony, just because my father, he was an immigrant he actually moved from India to England and he was working in a factory at the time they made all sorts of denim clothing, and fast forward a little bit he started, on the factory floor and he actually ended up owning the factory, so I come from a line of entrepreneurs if you can say that, my other siblings decided to go into other disciplines such as the medical fields but I chose to follow in my father’s footsteps and it’s always been the business side of law that has always attracted me.
Tony: That is really something on your father being an immigrant and eventually owning the company that he went to work for, I love that that is so cool.
Kelly: Yes, thank you, he’s definitely been my mentor and I’ve always looked up to him because he’s a prime example of an entrepreneur that started with nothing and ended up with actually achieving his dream.
Tony: Okay now he mentored you and taught you I presume some of the world of business, how did the legal part come in?
Kelly: I have been in practice for about 16 years now Tony, and I started off with the world’s largest international law firms, and I have been truly blessed because I’ve learned from some of the best legal minds out there, I decided to go out on my own and next year it’s going to be my tenth year anniversary, I can’t believe I’ve been in business for that long.
Tony: That’s amazing.
Kelly: Thank you, and every year Tony in my law firm, it’s growing steadily and I have come across entrepreneurs that are so passionate about what they do and they feel that the legal aspect of their business sometimes can hold them back which is true, I’ve noticed over and over again Tony that the one thing that business owners don’t know is actually the legal ins and outs of their business, and it doesn’t have to be difficult for them, they don’t have to go to law school in order for them to own and run their business successfully, and last year June, was when I actually released my first book, go legal yourself, and that is a guide for business owners to really understand what it takes to be successful from a legal standpoint, again over and over again Tony I’ve seen businesses fail just because the business owners, they had no idea that they had to follow certain laws.
I’ll give you an example I inherited a client from the Bay Area, they owned a corporation and in the corporation they had transferred a gas station in fact they transferred about three gas stations and there were nuisances going on at one of the places, and so the homeowners filed suit against the business owners and long story short the business owners thought they were protected through their corporation so their personal assets would be protected, in fact they never followed corporate compliance, why? Because they had no idea that they had to do this based on a simple thing like this that the business owner should have been told, if you have a corporation you have to follow corporate compliance, but they are minimum Tony you have to do your annual minimum, so the law aspect and to finish that story, the business owners not only were they sued through their corporation but they were sued personally as well.
So the law aspect of business really kind of goes hand-in-hand, I am a huge proponent of really educating my clients, not just I’m going to be your attorney and that is it, I actually counsel them on the business aspect of it too and because there was so much misinformation out there, pretty much everyone can just google stuff nowadays and there’s going to be a hundred different pieces of information that’s going to come up, but do you truly know whether that’s right for you as a business owner, so that’s why I wrote that book, laying out the four phases of a business and I am the creator of the business legal life cycle Tony, everyone understand the life cycle of a person but they don’t really understand a lifecycle of a business and a legal one at that, so this book it’s very easy to read, it lays out exactly what you need to know as a business owner, just to protect yourself because as a business owner myself I know how hard it is to run a business, let alone make money at it.
Tony: Absolutely agree with you there and as a corporation employee, I know what it take to do those minutes and file them and you would think that it’s such a small amount of work, but you have to do it and if you don’t yeah it makes you liable exactly very interesting, I’ve never heard too much of people being sued for not filing their minute, but thank God, thank goodness I file mine all the time, I mean you’re doing this for, it’s just a little bit of paperwork in a whole year time you would think a corporation would have the time to do that.
Kelly: Exactly.
Tony: Tell us about your book please, tell us about your book, Go Legal Yourself, and how that helps, you know our audience is heavy in entrepreneurs, solopreneurs, small business owners and so forth, let’s explain to them what this book does and why this would help them in their business.
Kelly: The book ”Go Legal Yourself” is a guideline for business owners so they can understand their business legal lifecycle, what do I mean by that? The business legal lifecycle has four phases, we have the startup phase, the growth phase, the established phase and then eventually the exit phase which means the sale of the business, the merger of the business, so one reason and one reason only a business owner goes into business and yes it is to make money, it is to put food on the table, it is to protect your family while you have decided to take that risk and go out and become a business owner and start your own business, well along with that risk you really need to understand the basics of running a business are, not just from a financial perspective, not just from a strategic or marketing perspective, but as a business owner, a successful one at that really understands the legal ins and outs of running the business, so for example if you go to start a business as written in the book and you can get more information directly from the books, what type of entity should you be, that question has been thrown around for years and years and years and in most of the time, clients that come to me, they say well we did a lot of research on this and I still don’t understand which type of entity I should be.
So you look at the bigger picture, you know you’ve got entities such as limited liability company, you got S corporation, you’ve got C corporations and not all of these are rights for that business owner, so you can’t just say I’m going to be an LLC because my friend is an LLC, so the book really explains the differences between these entities and what really could be best for your type of business, and then it goes on to explaining eventually yes you are going to grow as a business owner, you are going to hire employees, you are going to have a board of directors, advisors, what’s the best way to do this? Let me share a quick story with you Tony, this is a story about a client of mine, when I met him he had three employees and he said Kelly I’m growing, I have no idea what I’m doing, I need your help, perfectly fine, so as the client was growing, we made sure that we put in place company policies and procedures, as a business owner, your first and foremost responsibility is to protect yourself and how do you do that, well you put policies and procedures in place, you make sure that your employees are on the same page and you.
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Tony: And we’re back with Kelly Bagla, the queen of business law.
Kelly: When there’s conflict it’s always arises because the employee was on a different page than the employer, always, that’s always the scenario, so we made sure that we had these policies in place, we made sure that the employees understood and they were actually qualified to do the respective work that they were assigned, the most dangerous thing as you’re growing Tony is to lose your right hand man, what happens when that occurs, so this is what was happening with my client and we very quickly made sure that the right-hand man whatever duty and responsibilities he had, they were all captured on paper, we made sure that if he stepped away from that role somebody else could come in and step in, nobody thinks like this because you’re too excited, you’re growing as an entrepreneur, so that’s another huge tip that you’ll find in the book and then eventually as you are getting ready to sell your business, again doing business for one reason and that is for that business to make you money, not just when you starting it or growing it actually when you need it as well.
So there are multiple ways you can exit your business, you can sell it to your employees, you can sell it to a third party, you can sell it to a competitor but you have to make sure that your company is ready for sale, when I work with clients Tony I make sure that my clients are ready at a drop of a hat to sell their business when the opportunity arrives, if any opportunity arises tomorrow, I’m going to make sure my clients are able to sell tomorrow and not eight months from now or a year from now, you’ve already lost that opportunity, so again the book is all about making sure that you as a business owner is knowledgeable about the different phases of your business and what you need to do in those phases to legally protect yourself and also become a successful business owner.
Tony: Those are very good points Kelly, and you know so many times I think with successful people who were mentored from the company they worked in and eventually left the company and became a competitor, so yes that right-hand man or that key employee too many times can and it does happen, they’ll leave and they will start their own company.
Kelly: Exactly.
Tony: Now you have some summary or some tips for our audience or something that they could take away and learn as well as of course we should get the book, by the way the book is available at, if they go to your site Baglalaw.com can get a copy of the book or do they have to go to Amazon or where?
Kelly: They can directly go to Amazon through my site.
Tony: Alright, so in addition to going to Amazon and getting a copy of the book, is there something that they can start working on right away?
Kelly: Yes absolutely, the number one thing that a business owner can do is actually take assessment and they can take that assessment directly on my website Tony, the assessment is going to tell them where they are in their business legal life cycle, if you are in business I can’t highly stress enough that please understand where you are so you have no setbacks, so you’re not wasting money or time which as business owners we don’t have of either and that you are making sure you are setting yourself up for success, so they can go directly to my website Baglalow.com take the assessment and find out exactly where they are.
Tony: I like that. All right everyone, revenue crew get that assessment done and find out where you stand, don’t just assume that everything is fine, too many stories in, you’ll hear it in my past interview, that unexpected legal little entanglement comes that was not expected and it throws a wrench in the work, so I highly advise you wherever you are in your cycle whether you are starting, you have been doing business for years or whatever, check it out, do that assessment, get protected, to simple and too fast to do. Alright, and now Kelly, you’re the top woman entrepreneur, tell us about this amazing status and how that happened.
Kelly: Well thank you Tony, the reason why I was chosen and nominated as one of the top women entrepreneurs is because I decided to take my law firm to the next level, and what I mean by that is I’m not your typical attorney, I’m not someone that will, you come to see maybe once a year or when you need something drafted and the attorney basically does the legal work and they send you on the way, I run a more personalized practice than that, like I mentioned earlier Tony, I truly am passionate about business itself, I also have a start-up entity called go legal yourself, so I know exactly what it takes for someone to start a business, I mean you’ll definitely experience heartache when things are not going your way, so based on my client’s needs and what I saw over and over and over again, is that startup especially brand new entrepreneurs they need hand-holding and it’s not just at the beginning, but it’s throughout the life of the business.
So my firm is focused and concentrate exactly on the legal needs of the business from startup, from inception all the way to the sale and as we’re going through this phases, I counsel out of each phase as well, plus I’ve surrounded myself with other professionals Tony that I have tried myself and used myself to, and one thing that we all have is our reputations and I pride myself on creating these long-term relationships with professionals, where I can bring them in to help entrepreneurs, numbers and I we don’t get along, I don’t touch numbers at all, so I have a CPA that I trust implicitly to bring on board, I have a business coach that I trust implicitly to come on board and strategize, so it’s not again I’m not your typical attorney so because I think outside the box and sometimes if the box isn’t there I create the box, and that’s why because of the way I run my business, the way I have helped entrepreneurs and the way I continue to grow my practice and actually think outside the box is why I was chosen and nominated as one of the top women entrepreneurs.
Tony: That is phenomenal, very good on you again kudos, amazing.
Kelly: Thank you.
Tony: You run such a great operation, so clean, neat, very professional, you are poised for much bigger things I’m certain, as a matter of fact you also Podcast, you’re adding layers and dimensions to your expertise and professionalism here, could you tell us a little bit about your Podcast?
Kelly: Absolutely, Tony I am having so much fun being a podcaster as you can imagine.
Tony: I love it, for me I joke about it all the time I’m Italian so I can talk with my little lip and it just so great to Podcast, especially to get feedback from audience that you are helping, giving them information, it’s such a high I can’t compare it with anything.
Kelly: That’s exactly it; it’s all about sharing information, educating business owners, why not? I am a business owner, I know the failures and how to get over obstacles and maybe avoid the obstacles, so if I can help someone avoid those issues and problems, I’ll absolutely do that, the podcast came about again because I have these professional relationships Tony, and I actually bring them on as a guest and they share their knowledge and tips on the show and once a week I release maybe like a 5 minute segments sometimes, a 10 minutes segment, so they are really short because people’s attention spans are worse than a goldfish, did you know that Tony?
Tony: Worse than a goldfish?
Kelly: Yes, a goldfish, that attention.
Tony: I’ve never heard that expression before so please explain it.
Kelly: A goldfishes attention is eight seconds, eight, humans we used to be about nine now can you believe it we are seven, seven seconds.
Tony: What were we talking about?
Kelly: Absolutely, so it’s better to give information out in short little segments and again the podcast is based on helping entrepreneurs become more successful and again like I said I’m sure having fun at it.
Tony: That is very cool and I totally carry that enthusiasm, that inner feeling, and for our audience that don’t have a podcast going about their business, let me help you, I’ll help you I’ll show you how to set it up and give you information and I have other Podcast about that as well.
Kelly: And may I also share quickly Tony is that we do have an app, the audience can download the app directly from the app stores it’s called Go Legal Yourself, and when they do download the app they actually get a copy of my book for free.
Tony: I like that, alright everyone, now do they go to the google store or the apple store, where do they get it please?
Kelly: Just on their app store, where everybody’s app store are so on IPhone or Android they can just go to the app store and search for Go Legal Yourself.
Tony: Alright everyone, we have homework today, we have the assessment, we have book to get and we have the app to get, so let’s have some fun today It’ll take you not more than five minutes everybody, alright. And we have time for one more question and let me ask you Kelly, what’s your future look like? You’re rising so much on many dimensions that I just mentioned, what else is in store please?
Kelly: Tony I have to really share that, my future is as bright as today, I am loving the life that I’m living and I’m actually writing a second book, I never thought in a million years I would be an author but here I am, the second book is actually called Go Own Yourself and this is based on personal experiences, it’s based on, if somebody wants to step out of the box, if they want to create their own box, if they want to create some life that they actually want to live and not somebody else’s, this book is for them, in fact it’s about owning yourself first before you can own a successful business.
Tony: I really like that and I look forward to talking about that, please get back to me when you have that book ready to come out, we’ll do another show on it, that is a great tittle, Go Own Yourself, I’m looking forward to that.
Kelly: Thank you, in fact we will be publishing this June, I’m very excited about that Tony.
Tony: Great, we should get you on my new TV show.
Kelly: I would love that.
Tony: We’ll talk about that in just a moment. Alright, well once again Kelly thank you so much for sharing all these great information on Go Legal Yourself, your website is Baglalaw.com, and this is Kelly Bagla, the queen of business law and you really know your stuff, thanks so much Kelly, I love this, short but sweet.
Kelly: Thank you so much Tony, it’s such a pleasure, thank you.
Tony: Alright. Well alright thank you and thank you everyone and stay tuned to our next show on revenue chat.
Tony: Stick around in just another moment, I’m going to tell you about something I really love, if you like this interview would you kindly give me a review on iTunes, it’s the purple icon on your Apple device, a sentence or two is just fine, thanks in advance. Our next episode is with Cindy Ashton, getting high paid speaking gigs.
Tony: Hi, Tony here with a quick word about getting you discovered, do you want a lot of people checking out your sales page, your branding page, your podcast, like many people are you just trying to do it all yourself or maybe get by with a virtual assistant or two, are you taking webinars, seminars and workshops to learn how to grow your social media and how to bring visitors to your site or are you downloading free eBooks, buying books, buying classes, doing this and that just to learn how to get more sales, more people, more exposure, we all do and it isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be for some is it, it’s a lot of work, it’s a lot of effort, it takes a lot of training, I’ve written books on this and I’m helping others get a lot of visitors to their web pages and podcasts and I mean thousands and thousands every month, check it out go to Tonydurso.com/grow that’s Tony D-U-R-S-O.com/G-R-O-W Tonydurso.com/grow and get discovered.
Tony: Here’s a story about something I really love, what do I love, continuing on from the last episode, so five months later Ronin my pure white Akita well he tore his right ACL and was recovering beautifully, however he was unable to stand perfectly of course, for about five months Ronin limped and put all his weight on his left leg as he limped around as best as possible going for walks and so forth, well he was really dirty and we took him to the groomers and we were very kind and gentle with him but the strain was too much for that left leg all those months and it just busted, he tore his left ACL oh no this was devastating for us, once again the trusty Jeep Wrangler came in handy as a makeshift transporter and we picked up our 130 pound boy and put him in, and for the next ten months with two torn ACLs this is the rear, the right rear and the left rear, two torn ACLs we had to let him heal naturally because even surgery wasn’t guaranteed for more than six months.
So we carted him on going to the bathroom every single day for 10 months, I put him on a cart and carted him around on what I call the Ronin trolley and all the neighbors would come out and they would talk with him and pet him and play with him and he was just so nice and if you go on my YouTube, you’ll actually see a one-minute clip of him on the Ronin trolley, well for that 10 months he missed his trips to the park and he missed running errands with us and so forth, we just did everything to really get him to convalesce properly, but even during this as any Jeep would drive by even while Ronin was out on his trolley, he would just perk up and look and he was like because he just loves Jeeps, there’s something about a Jeep Wrangler, well eventually after 10 months he was strong enough to walk around a little bit at a time and a little bit at a time and a little bit at a time and eventually he was able to walk around enough that we were able to put him in the Jeep, started to take him for outings and boy was he happy, he just loves that Jeep Wrangler, well our Jeep Wranglers bears the official seal of approval from Ronin, our precious Akita, I love my Jeep and so does pushy pushy and if you’re on my Facebook page at Tony S. Durso, S for Salvadori, Tony S. Durso you’ll see some photos there under my albums labelled what I love, now stay tuned for the next episode for another story involving pushy pushy and the wolves, you’ve got to hear this, stay tuned.
Tony: Alright, thanks again everyone and until next time, remember you can make life better for yourself and everyone, choose wisely.