For many people, their lifelong dream is to own and operate their own business. However, to start and then maintain a successful business, many challenges must be overcome. One of these will certainly be the legal complexities of starting and running your own business. If you ignore the legal aspects of your business, you may end up running afoul of the law or being shut down entirely. Therefore, you should keep the following things in mind, and maybe do a bit of extra research so that you can make the best possible decision for your business.
Business Legal Structure
The legal rules for businesses depend on the business legal structure chosen. You should give this some serious thought. The choices include options like sole proprietorships, general partnerships, and the limited liability of companies and corporations. Each choice has its own benefits and drawbacks. If you want complete control of your company, a sole proprietorship is the best choice. If you want less financial liability, a limited liability company or corporation may be preferable. It would be a good idea to decide what type of business you want to start, keeping these things in mind.
Finances
There are many complex legal issues regarding the financial side of running a business. If you want to start a corporation, you will need expertise in securities law since you will be using the issuance of stock to raise capital for your company. It would be a good idea to seek out the expertise of a securities law attorney, as their knowledge will certainly be required to make sure your stock offering does indeed conform to the dense legal code on the matter.
Employment
If you wish to employ workers in your company, you must be extremely careful in how you deal with them if you want to follow the law. How you hire and fire employees matter a great deal. If it can be shown you showed bias in regards to a protected class at any step of their employment or termination, you could end up being sued. How you can schedule, compensate, promote, discipline, and manage employees is also determined by labor laws.
Workplace Safety
There is also a thick volume of rules and regulations regarding work conditions and workplace safety you must adhere to as an employer. Many of these rules were put in place by OSHA, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Not complying with OSHA regulations can get expensive, as you get fined for every non-compliance they find and fined again the longer it takes for you to make the necessary changes. It would therefore be in your best interest to make sure your worksite is up to code the first time, which means finding out what you need to know or do to make sure that happens.
You should also keep in mind that workplace injuries that run afoul of the law don’t have to be all that dramatic in nature. Simply forcing employees to repeat the same movements too often for too long can result in repetitive motion injuries.
This, of course, is only a small sample of all the different laws you have to adhere to as a business owner. Business is one of the most regulated facets of society and it would be a good idea to find out as much as you can before trying to enter into it. As such, don’t be afraid to get outside help when you need it. Very rarely does a business owner have complete knowledge of every law and rule that regulates business operations. Lawyers can help you fill in the gaps of what you need to know, and you can do a lot of outside research on your own.
