ANY business owner will tell you, going into business is inherently risky and a key component of your success is how you manage and minimise risk.

From a legal perspective, there are a number of ways you can set about avoiding costly disputes. Here are three.

 

Terms and Conditions.

T&Cs set out how you will do business with your customer.

The size of the business, types of goods and/or services, and who your customers are (consumers or other businesses) will affect your T&Cs but they should cover such matters as price, quantity, delivery, description and specification, limitation or exclusion of liability, risk and title in goods, and quality.

You should include your T&Cs in your brochures, quotes, order forms, website and even you invoices.

The important thing is to make certain the other party is aware of them before you contract.

 

Employment Agreements.

It is important from the outset that you have well drafted employment agreements, not only dealing with your staff during their employment, but often more importantly afterwards. Employees (particularly senior staff) come into possession of valuable information in the course of their employment, including customer and supplier lists, pricing structures, and business processes and procedures. Restrictive covenants and confidentiality clauses can help prevent employees disclosing information to competitors but these clauses must be carefully drafted if they are to be effective. Courts are more than willing to strike them down if they consider them unreasonable.

 

Shareholder/Partnership Agreements.

When a business is starting out or things are all going along smoothly, having a proper agreement drawn up between partners or shareholders can seem a low priority.

After all, we are all fair and reasonable.

The difficulty is that we all have different views of what is fair and reasonable, and different recollections of what was agreed months or years ago.

Unsurprisingly, the best time to get such agreements in place is early on, when everyone is ‘on the same page’. You can set out clearly how the business of a partnership or company will be run, responsibilities of individuals, how disputes will be dealt with if they arise, succession planning, and protection of minority or majority shareholders or partners.

If you would like further information on the above or wish to discuss any other legal aspect of your business, please call Sean Jenner on 01823-362881.