I recently spoke at the AICD regional conference about surviving in business. To assist attendees I created a 20 point legal business health check so that people can conduct a quick review of their business.
How do you score on the Legal Business Health Check?
- Is your business owned in your own name, or in an entity that owns other assets?
- Have you signed any personal guarantees in relation to your business?
- Are your spouse’s assets protected if your business fails?
- If you are in business with other parties, do you have a properly documented agreement with the other owners of your business?
- Do you have appropriate insurances in place, such as WorkCover, professional indemnity and public liability?
- What happens if one of the owners or key people in your business die? Will the business survive?
- Do you have properly documented terms of trade with all parties that you deal with in your business?
- Do you know the terms of the lease of your business premises?
- What happens on the expiration of the lease in your business? Will your rent increase?
- Do you have properly documented employment agreements and contracts with your employees, and contractors that you deal with?
- Is your business logo and other intellectual property trademarked and protected?
- Do you have systems and procedures in place to comply with your occupational, health and safety obligations?
- Have you accounted for, or paid up to date, all of your superannuation, PAYG, GST and tax obligations?
- Do you have appropriate corporate governance in place, such as minutes of meetings, policies, constitution, and shareholders’ agreements?
- If there are any loans that have been made by you to your business, are they properly documented and secured?
- Do you have a privacy policy for your customer’s information?
- Do you have terms of trade for your website?
- Have you protected your interests in the event you are not paid by your customers?
- Do you have any risk management strategies to protect your business in the event of unforeseeable events, such as data crashes etc?
- Does your business comply with all consumer protection laws?
If you have any questions in relation to your business, your legal business health check or anything referred to above, please contact me.
The information provided in this article is for general information and educative purposes in summary form on legal topics which is current at the time it is published. The content does not constitute legal advice or recommendations and should not be relied upon as such. Whilst every care has been taken in the preparation of this article, FC Lawyers cannot accept responsibility for any errors, including those caused by negligence, in the material. We make no representations, statements or warranties about the accuracy or completeness of the information and you should not rely on it. You are advised to make your own independent inquiries regarding the accuracy of any information provided on this website. FC Lawyers does not guarantee, and accepts no legal responsibility whatsoever arising from or in connection to the accuracy, reliability, currency, correctness or completeness of any material contained in this article. Links to third party websites or articles does not constitute any endorsement or approval of those sites or the owners of those sites. Nothing in this article should be construed as granting any licence or right for you to use that content. You should consult the third party’s terms and conditions of use in relation to any third-party content. FC Lawyers disclaims all responsibility and all liability (including liability for negligence) for all expenses, losses, damages and costs you might incur as a result of the information being inaccurate or incomplete in any way. Appropriate legal advice should always be obtained in actual situations.
Prefer to get in touch?
With offices in Brisbane, Sunshine Coast, North Queensland and Sydney, our team is well equipped to provide both advice and support across a broad range of legal areas.