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Beginning a new business can be an exciting process, but the legal aspects of it can be quite intimidating. Often, asking business solicitors for advice and aid can be a good way to get everything in order. If you are wondering what sort of questions you should ask when getting law advice for your new business, consider the starting points below.
Commercial Property
Any business, even one that focuses mostly on online activities, needs a physical location to get started. The decisions about whether you want to buy or lease an office space and what sort of zoning permits you need are among the first and most significant legal questions you will face. Business solicitors can help provide advice on mortgages, lease extensions, the repurposing of property, and contract negotiations regarding commercial buildings.
Employment Law
How do you plan to handle the hiring process for your business? Even a start-up company that includes yourself and a few friends will need to expand the staff if it is successful. Any sort of hiring process requires you to know about human resources laws and regulations in your area, redundancy procedures, and contract law. There is a need to make sure that the hiring process is fair at all times, but also to ensure that you are protected from people who try to unfairly take advantage of the system.
Partnerships
Most businesses start up as a small group of individuals, but they can grow quickly. When that happens, it’s important to determine a hierarchy of authority and to think about how you want to handle present and future partnerships. You should seek out advice on what personal investments should be required from each partner, how profits and losses need to be allocated among the different people involved, and how much flexibility you want in terms of altering the partnership. Remember also that successful businesspeople tend to get many exciting opportunities once they’ve established themselves. In case it’s time for someone to move on, advice on dissolving partnerships is also useful.
Protection from Crime
Business crime can take many forms, including embezzlement, security breaches, or even physically dangerous situations such as robberies or arson. Business solicitors can help provide you with advice on where your potential vulnerabilities as an organisation are and how you should go about protecting yourself. For example, if your business requires you to have a lot of cash on site, you need to make sure you invest more in security and look into the proper levels of insurance to protect not only your interests but also the interests of your clients and customers.
Having somebody who knows about the ins and outs of business law is an important step that you can take to protect your fledgling company from the perils that await many new businesses. There are many legal aspects to consider, and no matter how excited you are about the possibilities of your new company, it always helps to have somebody else give their advice and opinions.
This sponsored article was written in conjunction with Johnson & Gaunt, a High Street practice of Solicitors in Banbury, serving clients in North Oxfordshire, Northants and Warwickshire.
Article is sourced from The Small Business Blog
