Community Highlights: Meet Kelli Jones of Kelli Jones Law

Today, we’d like to introduce you to Kelli Jones.

Hi Kelli, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start, maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers.
I graduated from law school in 2014 and first worked for a few non-profits. I never thought I would open a law firm, but in 2020, the pandemic changed everything. I worked at a private firm then and went to court daily. Once COVID hit, courts were closed, and business was slowing down. I was let go in June 2020, and within a few weeks, I decided to start my own firm. I didn’t love the area of law I was practicing in and wasn’t thrilled about getting another job that involved a lot of court appearances.

I had already been using social media to connect with other entrepreneurs in the fitness space, which is a part-time hobby of mine, and many of them had started their own businesses, either relating to fitness or social media. I saw the need for legal protection for these businesses. I pivoted my Instagram account from mostly fitness-based to legal and decided to open my firm to work with entrepreneurs and small business owners.

It has been three and a half years now, and I am still helping business owners legally protect their businesses, mainly through contracts and trademarks!

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Starting a business is difficult. There are so many things to navigate that would never occur to you as an employee. Learning how to wear all of the hats is one step, and then learning to delegate some of those hats away is another. When you come from being an employee to entrepreneurship, it feels so great in the beginning: being able to make all of the decisions without being told what to do and feeling like you have so much more freedom. It still is great, but it can also be tough to figure out how not to make your business your entire life.

One thing I struggled with was trying to separate myself from my business, not getting carried away, and spending all of my time, energy, and thoughts on my business. It’s something I see a lot of entrepreneurs struggle with because we’re doing something we enjoy, and it feels good to work on building the business because we’re proud of it, and it is something we created ourselves. But at the end of the day, it is still a job and not our entire identity.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next, you can tell us a bit more about your business.
Kelli Jones Law, PLLC is a law firm for small business owners and entrepreneurs. I help counsel business owners on how to best legally protect their business, mainly with contracts and trademarks. Educating business owners on the importance of being proactive in handling the legal for their business is important and something I focus a lot on.

When it comes to the law for your business, it’s something to take care of before something goes wrong, not when something goes wrong. Proactive business owners will end up saving time, money, and stress because they took care of the legal early on in their business. Lawyers can be overwhelming and tend to speak using confusing legal jargon. That is something I don’t like to do.

My goal is always to try to make the legal side a little less boring and easier to understand. Although hiring a lawyer early is always best, I will never shame anyone for not knowing what to do or when to do it and making a legal mistake. There’s so much to learn and do in business; there’s just no way we can all know the best way to do everything.

Because the legal is a little overwhelming, if you don’t know where to start, I typically recommend a pick my legal brain session to get all of your legal questions answered and for us to determine what your legal priorities are. Every business is different, and there’s no one correct path. Some businesses may benefit from establishing a business entity first, while another business may need a client contract first, and another may want to file a trademark as the first step.

For more established businesses, it’s time to have a lawyer on your team, and that is where legal subscription services come in. This is important so you can have access to a lawyer for all of your legal questions as your business grows, without the $300/hour price tag, plus contracts and trademark services that you may need more often than just a 1-off project.

Are there any apps, books, podcasts, blogs, or other resources you think our readers should check?
The podcast On the Up and Up with Kira La Forgia is a great one for business owners that I love because she covers a ton of topics that aren’t always the most popular ones to talk about but are some of the most important ones for business owners to learn about.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.kellijoneslaw.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawyerkelli_
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kellianne-jones
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawyerkelli

Image Credits
Jatnna Garcia Photography