Protecting Your Small Business From Everyday Problems

When you're excited to get your business launches, chances are you're thinking about all of the hands on things you'll do and what your incredible products and services will be like. You don't think about spending hours sitting filling in forms and getting the legalities in order, but it's so important that you do. Here's how you can protect your small business.

Get your paperwork in order
Paperwork can be dull there's no doubt about it. But it has to be done, this means registering your business with your local council/ government so you're paying the right taxes. It means making sure you have the right certification for what you do, for example if you're a food business you must have the right health and hygiene certificates. It also means making sure you have the right paperwork if you have any employees so that you're following the law, as there are a number of employee's rights you need to make sure you're meeting or you risk breaking the law. If a customer, employee or regulator ends up needing this information then making sure you have it and it's all in order can prevent a whole lot of headaches (and potentially legal proceedings).

Keep on top of legal requirements
Once the paperwork is all up to date, it's important to keep it that way. This is because laws change, and if you fall behind you'll be breaking the law even with the best of intentions when everything started out well. Take employment law for example, this is one area that's really important to get right as people will end up claiming lawsuits against you otherwise. If you're nervous about being able to maintain that then it can be worth outsourcing things like HR and payroll to third party companies. Because their whole business is based on that, they're up to date on the law and they also have legal obligations to you as their customer. So even if something went wrong (which is unlikely) it would be them that was liable and not you. PCI penalties for noncompliance is another example, many small businesses break the law here without even realising so make sure you're doing your research.

Get insured
Insurance feels like one of those admin jobs you can put off until things calm down but it is the one safety net that actually saves a business when something unexpected happens. A lot of owners sign up for the first policy they see then leave it untouched for years even though the business has completely changed by then. If you have say new equipment, or you started offering extra services then your old policy might not even cover half of it. On the other hand you might be paying for things that made sense in the early days but are pointless now. The other big thing people don't think about is that some of the policies actually include support you can use every single day. Stuff like legal advice phone lines or even getting protection if some client decides they just aren't going to pay you. One quick call to your insurer can basically clear up a massive headache that would have otherwise taken you a solid week of stress trying to handle it by yourself. It's never the most fun thing to do but it means you won't be completely freaking out if some kind of accident or a claim happens to land right on your desk at the absolute worst possible moment.