Owning your own business can provide heaps of stress and anguish, panic and fear can sometimes rule as you’ll want to constantly make sure you keep turning over the right amount of profit to continue operating. However, as a business operator you need to be careful not to overlook vital aspects of your company that can land you in legal hot water and result in you having to hire a lawyer, we explore some of them here.
Don’t Set Yourself Up For A Damages Lawsuit
We’ll start with a fairly simple one, and one you yourself can help mitigate. Make sure you keep computer wires tucked away from key walkways, make sure any spillages are dealt with as soon as possible, using a wet floor sign. Use a set of rules people should adhere to regarding slips and trips, this shows you care and are encouraging due process. This extends to your whole business property including your car park, make sure any uneven concrete is fixed, the same with pot holes. Make sure you put grit down in the winter so it doesn’t stay too treacherous, all of these things can help you avoid a nasty lawsuit and a bunch of bad publicity.
Get Help
If something goes wrong, hire a lawyer straight away. The earlier the better, because they can help limit the issue before it gets too bad, the longer you wait, the more mess they have to clean up and the more it’s going to end up costing you. Try to hire the right lawyer for the job, as there are various specialities. For example, if you have been sued you should hire a Litigation lawyer at once.
Do Not Fire Anyone Or Downsize Without Seeking Alternate Possibilities
So things are no longer balancing, your outgoings exceed your income and you need to downsize to balance the books. Fair enough right? So you decide to lay off a number of employees, which is certainly within your right. However, if you don’t explore other avenues you could again be leaving yourself open to lawsuits, especially if you lay off multiple employees. You need to look at reduced work hours first, to see if people are willing to drop hours and in turn save you money, or offer redundancy pay for early retirement, that kind of thing will go a long way and will show the judge you’ve gone to other efforts to try and limit losing staff members.The same applies when firing someone, they may truly deserve it, but it needs to be done in the right way.
Be Diverse
Sometimes, even in small companies, the diversity rate is staggering. It happens without any preconceived prejudices too, just naturally, and before you know it you’re in a workplace dominated by by a single race or sex. Hiring from a diverse pool of talent allows your company to flourish and succeed. If you turn someone down at interview and they sue on discrimination then you’re going to look worse in the courtroom if your company is not at all diverse.
