Once you determined which business structure you will use as the vehicle for your business there’s a number of other practical things you’ll need to put in place to make the business live, to protect both you and the business, and to ensure the business operates within the law.
Contracts and Agreements
As soon as you commence your business entering into contracts and agreements with third parties will be almost unavoidable. And whilst many of us would like to operate on ‘handshake’ arrangements, without legal contracts and agreements in place it is just a matter of time until it costs you.
Contracts and agreements are there to both protect your business and help enable you to achieve your objectives.
Workforce Planning
How will you produce and deliver your goods and services? Many businesses need to either employ or contract people in to grow. If that is your plan you’ll need to determine how you will recruit, engage, manage and, from time to time, terminate employees. And the legal requirements around employee management can be complex to administer and costly if you get it wrong.
Licencing and trading requirements
Depending on your industry it is likely there are specific licencing and other trading requirements. What do you need in place to run your business within the law?
Funding
All businesses require capital to establish themselves, some more than others. If you aren’t self-funding your enterprise how do you intend to raise the capital? Banks, equity, loans, or some other means? Each of these will require a contractual agreement in place before funds are made available to the business. Contractual requirements may have specific requirements around what the money can be used fir and what your obligations are to the individual or organisation making the funds available. These need to be reviewed by your lawyer prior to entering into such agreements.
Buy a Business / Franchise
Often the quickest way to establish a business is to either buy and existing one or licence a business system, such as a franchise. Whether you’re buying a business or a franchise it is best to have your lawyer manage the process to ensure you have the best chance of success in your new venture.
Protecting Your Intellectual Property
If the ‘big idea’ on which your business will be built is a truly unique idea, process, or brand, it needs to be protected. What would be worse than coming up with a great idea only for someone else to take that idea, commercialise and reap the reward for themselves. It is possible to protect your business through the use of a patent, trademark or copyright.
Business Premises
And where will your business trade from? Will you need to secure premises? Do you intend to buy premises or lease them?
We can help you come up with a game plan for each of these considerations. Just get in touch with one of your Business Specialists today and let’s get you growing.
