Small business needing legal advice?

[tcav1990]

We are a small business. A young lady came to our state to help us grow the business. We were very clear to her from the beginning there was no money to pay her. She said she would help grow the business and she had enough money to tie her over for a few months. (We did not ask her to come to our state and do this). There was no contract signed. She wrote a business plan, which we paid her. We took the business plan to a bank and tried to get a loan in hopes of having some income to pay her salary and grow the business. We were declined from 2 banks. She proceeded with aggressive advertising on the internet. The advertising financially put us in overdrawn at the bank. Once the bank contacted us about the charges on our account we confronted her and told her we could not use her services, please stop. She then send us a bill for several thousand dollars for her services. We tried to make a "good faith" effort and pay her a percentage. She declined and seeking legal advice. Are we legally obligated to pay her? And could she hurt our small business? Thank you for your advice.