You might not be aware of this, but the law plays a huge part in the general life of a business owner. From day one when you begin to think about setting up your company, legal issues should be a large part of your worries and your concerns.
You need to make sure that you know how they could impact your company and the steps that you must take to avoid a legal disaster. Here are a few of the different times where the law will rear its head when running your business.
Day Zero
Before day one when your company is open on the market, you will need to consider the legal side of things. You need to make sure that you are aware of the different steps that must be taken during the initial setup of the company. Essentially, we are talking about business formation.
Forming a business isn’t just a matter of deciding that you want to run a business. You will need to make sure that you are setting it up correctly. For instance, if you use a company such as Your Company Formations Limited, they will set you up with an official certificate to prove your company has the right legal documents in place. You can then avoid issues with trading on the market illegally.
Hiring Employees
You should always make sure that you are using an HR team when you begin to hire employees. An HR team can make sure that you hire the right workers in your business. You will be focussed on making sure that the workers you choose fit in well with the rest of the team or that you click with the people who you interview.
HR will be far more interested in assuring that you have been hiring ethically. For instance, you need to think about whether you have given anyone an unfair advantage. One example of this would be letting someone know they are going to be hired, in the middle of an interview process. This is unfair to other people attending the job interview. If you are found guilty of this, you could be sued for unfair hiring practices.
Getting Money Right
What about issues with money in your company? You need to make sure that you are paying the right amount of tax for your business. Don’t forget, as soon as you start trading with your company, the tax becomes important. You must make sure that you know exactly how much you are going to owe the government in tax per month.
This can be quite tricky to calculate, so the solution is to make sure that you are using a chartered accountant. With a chartered accountant on your team, you will never be visited by the government tax agency hoping to catch you out and cost you a fortune. If that happens, there’s a good chance that you will be charged for under paying in tax. That can cost your company a fortune.
If you are eager to avoid the expenses of hiring an accountant full time, you should make sure you are using an outsourcing service. Using an outsourcing service, you can get the same level of service at a far cheaper fixed cost. As such, it’s a great way to save a fortune on your business model and still protect your company legally.
Copyright Issues
You’re going to be introducing a lot of new products and services onto the market in the first year. Some of these could be quite similar to products that already exist. You may also find that the name is similar to a product that is already in being sold or even the logo.
In cases like this, you can get involved in a rather vicious copyright lawsuit. You might have heard of the bar in Ireland that sued the TV show Glee after they claimed the brand damaged their own business image. They won this court case against 20th Century Fox, and while it is still unclear the effect this will have on the latter brand it will almost certainly have a negative impact. If 20th Century Fox, a multi billion dollar company, struggle to avoid lawsuits like this, you must make sure you have the best protection from a legal service.
As you can see then, there are lots of ways the law begins to affect you once you start a company, so you need to make sure you are protected. With the right legal support, you can avoid the issues that constantly cost companies an absolute fortune on the market.