This is a heavy one. What are the legal considerations when you start a business – there could be 1000s and 1000s of them. Realistically, what you need to do is make sure that whatever your business is that you’ve got your legals under control, I’m going to run through a couple, please note: This is not an exhaustive list.
- First, you want to work out what type of entity you’re going to trade through, talk to your accountant, they can help you with that one.
- Then you need to look at making sure that you’ve got all the licenses and permits that you need to run your business. If you’re opening a cafe, you need a foodservice license. If you got a cafe with food on the on the footpath, you need to have a separate Council license for that. If you’re running an office and you have the radio cleaning, playing, you need a license to have that radio running in your business. If you’re going to be a builder in construction, make sure you’ve got a QB CC license, any license or qualifications that you need.
They are the big nitty legal kind of things that you’re going to do.
If you’re in business with anyone, make sure you’ve got a partnership or a shareholder’s agreement. Your lawyer can help you with this. This is what they do day in day out.
Make sure you’ve got your terms and conditions for your customers and that they’re on your website. Make sure your payment terms have got your terms and conditions.
Apart from that if you’re going to start a business, probably the best thing you can do is be best pals with your accountant and your lawyer. Get them to have a chat but depends on the type of business you’re running. And you know, accountants and lawyers deal with all kinds of businesses in all walks of life.
So, give us a call, have a chat and we can work out what the legal considerations are for you and your business.
PS I wrote a book called Zest for Success on starting a business – it has a lot more detail than this, you can grab a copy by ringing the office or going to www.zest4success.com.au. (It’s also on Amazon) There are also a couple of other versions on Amazon for different industries as well (Trades and Professional Services)