In 23 years in business I have taken 1 customer to small claims court, myself. I have never been sued. Zero $ to lawyers. And yet, not a hobby.

That's like saying healthy people don't need health insurance. Surely, it's best to prepared, and just keep hoping you never need it.

But it isn't like health insurance. If the need arises, then I go hire a lawyer, I don't need to budget that there will always be a law expense. I don't need lawyer insurance. I do carry things like a huge general liability policy, workers comp coverage, commercial vehicle insurance, etc. All of those probably help me avoid needing a lawyer. I just don't agree that it needs to be an standard expense.

You're taking the insurance part too much to heart.

Just because you've never needed legal assistance in the past has no bearing on whether you'll need it in the future. You don't have to keep spending money on law you're not using--but having recourse to a lawyer and the funds to cover it seems like a pretty practical consideration when it's your company on the line...

I have no idea why the advice of budgeting so you can afford legal help when you need it generated this much foofurrah.

General reserves for the unexpected would cover legal as well as any other contingencies. My budget has some room the expected unexpected.

I am rather insurance avoiding by nature. I have liability on the vehicles but no comp or collision. I also have an extra vehicle and enough reserve to cover repairs. Over a few decades of driving this has saved me the price of a few cars. On 4 vehicles it saves over $500 a month.

There is more than one right way to budget for business or personal finances.

I don't think there's "foofurrah"; I think there are people disagreeing.

There was an emotional response and at least one epithet thrown. For something that innocuous? I'm sticking with proportional foofurrah.

Speaking for myself I saw the issue as being offended by the quote that said in effect, if you don't budget the way I think you should then you aren't a real business. There are plenty of successful businesses that don't budget and plan by any accepted standard.

I have a c-corp and a non-profit foundation. I filled out the paperwork and filed myself. It is likely that most businesses pay to do this. There are a lot of resources to help small and large businesses succeed, but telling the business owner that they are a hobby because they don't conform to a specific budget is not accurate.

We don't have board meetings and don't have a lawyer on retainer. We often work in tank tops and flip flops. We also have thousands of customers that never thought for a moment that we were not a real business.

My annoyance was completely with the unknown lawyerly type quoted, and really he doesn't matter to me. It is an attitude that I have seen elsewhere as well. In my definition the difference between hobby and business is the intent and attitude of the owners.

I think the word "budget" has a specific meaning to businesses. Businesses who seldom need a lawyer will pay for one when needed out of "contingency" or "miscellaneous". They have a plan for paying a lawyer if they need one. It is just not a budget line-item called "lawyer". And I don't blame them for taking offense at the word "hobby". Even if someone is taking a risk the shouldn't (which I don't think including legal contingencies under another line item without the word "legal" or "lawyer" qualifies as) that still does not make the business a hobby.