In Short
- Intake documents set client expectations, gather critical information, and protect your business legally and commercially.
- Include a client information form, services agreement, cancellation policy, liability waiver, and privacy policy.
- They reduce risks, safeguard intellectual property, and build client trust and professionalism.
Tips for Businesses
Comprehensive intake documents are essential for managing client relationships and mitigating risks. Use clear, professional agreements tailored to your services, ensuring they align with relevant laws and industry standards, like the Fitness Industry Code of Practice. Regularly review and update documents to remain legally compliant and reflect business changes.
As an online sports coach, your client intake process is crucial for setting the right foundations. Comprehensive intake documents allow you to understand each of your client’s needs, goals and risk factors. They also protect you legally and commercially at the start of your coaching relationship with your clients. This article will explore the most effective intake documents for online sports coaching business owners.
What are Intake Documents?
Your Intake Documents are the initial forms and paperwork a client or customer completes when engaging your services. Intake Documents serve several purposes:
- client screening to assess the suitability and needs of the client to ensure they match your services;
- setting expectations of what services will be provided, on what terms, price, and limitations;
- legal protections where you can include the relevant waivers and consent forms and create legally binding contracts; and
- mitigate risks by ensuring full information transparency and requiring clients to acknowledge and accept policies and applicable codes of conduct.
What Should You Include?
Information Form
An Information Form gathers all the key details about your client, including their name, client needs, age, location, emergency contact, medical history, injuries or conditions affecting training, goals, current fitness level and previous experience. By having this information upfront, you and your personal trainers can provide tailored coaching safely and ensure that the client is an appropriate fit for your services.
Services Agreement
A Services Agreement sets out the scope of the coaching services that you will provide. It should include key details such as the price, number of sessions, duration of each session, and type of coaching being provided.
Including clauses addressing intellectual property ownership in your training programs, videos, resources, and other materials is also essential. As the creator, you want to ensure that you retain full ownership.
If you’re a member of Fitness Australia, you may want to indicate this in your Services Agreement. This can demonstrate your commitment to industry standards and adherence to the Fitness Industry Code of Practice, which can enhance client confidence in your services.
Cancellation and Refund Policy
You should have a clear cancellation and refund policy to manage expectations if a client wishes to discontinue the coaching services during a package.
You may wish to offer:
- a full refund within a set cooling off period (for example, 7 days);
- a pro-rata refund for any unused portion beyond the cooling-off period; or
- include specific acceptable grounds for cancellation, like moving or injury, and termination rights for non-payment.
Disclaimer and Waiver
A disclaimer and waiver are essential documents for your online sports coaching business. They inform clients of training and physical activity risks and limit your or your coach’s liability.
You should include a clear disclaimer and waiver for your online sports coaching business to manage risks that may arise. This should include:
- acknowledgement that coaching carries inherent risks of injury;
- waiver of claims against you for any injuries suffered while training;
- an indemnification clause where the client indemnifies you against any third-party claims; and
- assumption of risk, where the client accepts a statement regarding the risks involved.
Importantly, in Australia, you should specifically consider including a recreational services waiver. Under the Australian Consumer Law, businesses providing recreational services can use waivers to exclude, restrict, or modify certain guarantees, including liability for personal injury or death due to negligence. These waivers:
- must be clearly worded and brought to the client’s attention;
- can help protect your business from liability for negligence in providing recreational services; and
- are subject to state-specific laws, so ensuring your waiver complies with relevant state regulations is crucial.
For Fitness Australia members, it’s important to note that your disclaimer and waiver should align with the Fitness Industry Code of Practice. This code sets standards for professional conduct and client care in the fitness industry, which may influence how you structure your waiver and the specific risks you need to address.
Download this free Commercial Contracts Checklist to ensure your contracts will meet your business’ needs.
Privacy Policy
A privacy policy is an important legal document that ensures transparency about data practices and compliance with privacy laws, such as the Privacy Act. Clear privacy commitments help build client trust in your online sports coaching business.
You’ll need a compliant policy outlining:
- how you collect clients’ personal information;
- what information you collect and why;
- how you use, store and secure the data;
- whether you share data with any third parties; and
- the client’s rights regarding accessing and correcting their information.
If you’re a member of Fitness Australia, your privacy policy should also reflect the privacy standards outlined in the Fitness Industry Code of Practice. This ensures that your data handling practices are not only legally compliant but also adhere to industry-specific best practices.
Continue reading this article below the formWhat are the Benefits of Effective Intake Documents?
Effective intake documents provide significant benefits to your online sports coaching businesses. They manage client expectations from the start, protect you and your business through liability limitation and risk mitigation, safeguard valuable intellectual property and ensure compliance with relevant laws or codes of practice.
Key Takeaways
Effective intake documents can adequately assess and mitigate your risks when taking on a new client for your Online Sports Coaching Business. Comprehensive intake documents, such as service agreements, waivers, and privacy policies, demonstrate your professionalism and provide a solid legal and commercial foundation for successful online coaching relationships for your business.
If you need advice regarding intake documents, our experienced contract lawyers can assist as part of our LegalVision membership. For a low monthly fee, you will have unlimited access to answer your questions and draft and review your documents for a low monthly fee. Call us today on 1300 544 755 or visit our membership page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Intake documents are the initial forms a client will fill out when starting or signing up with your business. They gather client information, set expectations around services, and establish legal protections for the coach.
What should you include as part of your intake documents?
Your intake documents should include a client information form, services agreement, liability waiver/disclaimer, privacy policy and any other applicable forms based on your specific coaching service.
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