Legal Strategies to Ensure Business Success

Companies often overlook one key element to ensuring business success: the value of a corporate attorney. They can provide legal strategies that increase profit, ensure regulatory compliance, and reduce the risk of lawsuits.

Litigation costs for a small business range from $3,000 to $150,000 and 43% of small business owners report being threatened or involved in a lawsuit. The following legal strategies can keep you out of the courtroom and on the business floor.

Business Structure

The state of Florida has 2.5 million small businesses. Your attorney can assist you in making an important decision: should you form an LLC?

A small business typically has limited resources, making it vulnerable to lawsuits, regulation violations, etc. The type of business you create and the steps you take to prevent problems are critical.

An LLC protects personal assets if your business fails or files for bankruptcy. While many elect to incorporate in Delaware, forming your LLC in Florida is preferable to avoid additional fees. If you file outside the state where you conduct business, you will likely have to pay double state filing fees.

Your business attorney will advise you on compliance with all local, state, and federal regulations. This prevents fines, penalties, and business closures.

Drafting Contracts

Proper contract wording is essential for all contracts between a business and its employees, customers, vendors, and business partners. The agreement must specify each party’s expectations, obligations, and rights.

Don’t create and use a contact without reviewing and updating it yearly. Changes in Florida business law, federal law, and business operations may impact the effectiveness of your contract. Your legal counsel can review those contracts periodically to ensure their validity.

Employee Policies

Ensure employees clearly understand workplace conduct, safety, harassment, discrimination, and more. Policies must be in writing and presented to every employee upon hiring to ensure understanding. Your business attorney may advise whether employees must sign an acknowledgment of receiving a company handbook.

Intellectual Property

Business owners are busy with day-to-day operations and don’t realize they have intellectual property that needs protection. Trade secrets, trademarks, copyrights, and patents are necessary to prevent another business from using your business’s unique processes, creative work, and inventions.

An attorney familiar with intellectual property can advise the steps for filing copyright or trademark registrations or applying for a patent when appropriate. Safeguarding a company’s intellectual property is a vital step in ensuring business success.

Legal Compliance

One major downfall of business success is failure to comply with local, state, and federal employment laws. Legal requirements exist for employee hiring, firing, compensation, and benefits. There are even questions you cannot ask during the interview process.

Depending on the type of business, workplace safety requirements exist. This includes compliance with OSHA standards.

Legal disputes can arise if you violate regulations about wages, work hours, anti-discrimination, and workplace safety. You must accurately classify all workers and independent contractors and maintain appropriate records on each.

Your business may require specific permits, certifications, or licenses to operate. Review all regulatory requirements to prevent penalties, fines, or possible business liquidation.

IRS Is Unforgiving

The Internal Revenue Service has numerous regulations regarding business taxes. To make matters worse, they change some requirements yearly, making this a complicated process.

You must stay current on all requirements for taxes on income, sales, payroll, and any state or local tax payments. This is not a task to attempt on your own. Use a professional familiar with the tax laws for business.

Risk Management

In today’s highly technical age, risks to your business are everywhere. You must protect sensitive customer information against data breaches using encryption, safe storage methods, and compliance with privacy regulations. Data breaches create legal liabilities.

In Florida, a business that fails to notify those affected by a breach can face a civil penalty of $1,000 for every day the breach is undisclosed. After 30 days, the fine increases to $50,000 for every 30 days, up to 180 days. The maximum fine is $500,000, more than enough to bankrupt a business.

Your business attorney can help you recognize and resolve other operational risks. Risk management strategies include developing safety protocols, contingency plans, liability insurance, and regular legal audits.

One area you want to look into is business insurance. You need liability, property, professional indemnity, workman’s compensation, and other industry-appropriate coverage.

Non-Business Risks

There are risks not relative to the direct operation of the business but essential to consider. For instance, a business owner going through a divorce may have their portion of the business impacted by the division of marital property.

Planning for this possibility when establishing your business helps preserve your interest in the company. A premarital contract may be the solution if the business exists before marriage.

Another risk people need to consider is what happens if an owner dies. Whether a sole proprietorship, partnership or any other business entity, you must ensure the business will continue operating after death. Each owner must dictate the transfer of their business interest in their will or trust to ensure business succession in probate.

In some situations, probate supersedes business succession plans. Speak with your business attorney to ensure your plan meets Florida legal requirements so the business can continue operating after an owner dies.

Regular Legal Audits

A legal audit ensures your business remains current on all laws and regulations. Your business lawyer will review all business operations. This includes all employment contracts, contracts with clients, financial transactions, insurance protection, company stock, OSHA compliance, and the company website for adherence to Florida state law.

The audits are a proactive approach to preventing legal issues by keeping the business current with new laws and regulations.

Legal Strategies for Dispute Resolution

If you are in business long enough, you will likely encounter a client, employee, or competitor who takes legal action against the company. Your business attorney can develop a dispute resolution strategy. This may include negotiation, mediation, or arbitration.

If the matter proceeds to litigation, you have an attorney familiar with your business’s integrity, practices, and legal compliance.

Make Use of Business Law Services

With ever-changing laws, industry standards, and technology advancements, having an attorney help develop legal strategies is imperative to business success.

Boyer Law Firm has experience helping large and small businesses with everything from minimizing liability risks to general counsel assistance, international business, and developing proactive procedures and solutions to operational and legal problems.

Contact us today to discuss how we can help your company.

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