Sure, you’ve created a product or service, built a king website, optimized it for greater online visibility and authority, gained loyal customers, negotiated shipping discounts, enhanced customer experience, and the list goes on.
But, do you have legal advice from qualified business lawyers to help protect the overall wellbeing of your business?
The thing is, business law is different from the laws that we follow in our day-to-day lives. It is less intuitive and more complicated than just following laws while doing drive-in activities in Toronto. And now that the pandemic is still around, it’s more essential to cover the bases of your business to survive the battle with qualified business lawyers.
Whether you have a daycare in Ontario or a newly launched restaurant, it’s essential to seek legal help right away for your small business to understand the potential issues that await you and to put your business on the right side of the law.
10 Legal Advice for Your Business
Photo Credit: August de Richelieu | Pexels
Attending legal matters even if your small business is still starting out is essentially one of the pillars to the success of your business. To help you recognize when to seek legal help, here are 10 tips to make sure your business operates smoothly during the pandemic.
1. Select a Business Entity
The structure of your business-sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation, or limited liability company-is the most significant thing you need to decide first when starting a small business. Your choice of business entity influences how you will be taxed, how decisions are made, and how you build sales.
2. Insist on Written Contract
While verbal agreements are still enforceable, a written contract is a much easier way to prove the agreement of the parties should court enforcement happen. Besides, there are contracts that are required by law to be written such as agreements for the sale of goods with a value of more than $500.
3. Use Legal Disclaimers
Using legal disclaimers on your products and services protects your business and your customers from anything that’s outside your responsibility. Before you exchange money, see to it that the responsibilities of both parties are properly discussed.
4. Protect Customers with Private Policies
One of the hottest issues today is customer privacy laws. As a small business with digital aims, you need to protect customer’s data and demographic information by setting up a formal privacy policy. If you intend to sell or share customers’ data, you are legally obliged to disclose this fact through your privacy policy.
5. Investors and Securities Law
Sometimes, business owners invite outside investors to increase cash to continue the operation of the business. However, there are frequent instances when investors and owners disagree on how the business should be operated. In this case, it’s necessary to comply with securities law to avoid losing money and further damages.
6. Protect Intellectual property
Intellectual property is your business’ new invention, know-how, discoveries, own processes, or another result of creativity. Protect them through trademarks, patents, or copyrights to gain full ownership and avoid disputes.
7. Maintain a Comprehensive Insurance
Any business should maintain comprehensive insurance in case accidents, natural disasters, a number of possible claims, or data breaches happen. When your business deal with general and property liability claims, it can result in expensive costs, time loss, and even frustration.
8. Negotiate Than Litigate
Even when you are the wronged party, a judge may not be in your favour. So, when a business dispute happens, negotiate a settlement agreement rather than litigating. Remember, lawsuits require tons of money, time, and stress. And you can save on all of these if you opt for alternative dispute methods.
9. Operate Legally
Whatever your industry is, keep it legally operated. Know the rules. Get the right permit, the necessary license, and certificates. The last thing you want is paying fines you could’ve prevented. If you need legal advice, speak to Specialist Solicitors Manchester for help.
10. Separate Business and Personal Finances
It is crucially essential to keep your business and personal finances separated. This means you shouldn’t use your personal funds to pay for your business funds and vice versa. You need to get a separate bank account or credit card for your small business. Doing so will help you avoid commingling which can put you at risk of legal issues.
As soon as you’re serious about creating a future of success for your business, it’s time to speak to someone now and seek legal advice to anticipate legal issues that could arise in your small business.
