As a businessman, you would want to run your business smoothly without going into legal complexities. But we all know it doesn’t happen to everyone. Without following proper legal procedures, a business will be messed up rather sooner than later.
It is instinctive to involve your DIY (Do It Yourself) skills in legal matters just to save money but, more often than not, this approach backfires. It is like not calling to a doctor when you have caught a modest cold but then suddenly it turns into pneumonia and you end up paying more eventually.
If you are still wondering why you specifically require an attorney for your business firm, here are the six reasons:
The solid foundation of your business
Your business will never take off if it is laid on the weak foundation. Pillars work as the spine for any business. Unless they are strong, uncertain situations will never cease to exist for you. As a matter of fact, there are a number of business structures – LLC, sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation and so on.
Before you cherrypick one of these business setups, you need to consult an attorney. Tax obligations, liabilities, and setup fees vary in all the business structures. A professional attorney can guide you about all these formalities at length and, henceforth, you can decide which arrangement works the best for your business.
Not only the attorney will be helpful for the counseling, but he will also assist you to make and file the documents. You have to be absolutely spot-on while making this decision otherwise, naturally, your bottom line will suffer.
Dealing with employees
If you have been into business for long, you would have learned by now that dealing with the employees is one of the most demanding tasks. The worst part is that you never know when your employees might turn against you. For example, it is not an uncommon occurrence for employees to rebel against the owner in the middle of the most important project.
Rest assured, you are less likely to surrender in the face of such scenarios if you have an attorney standing by your side. A business attorney can tell you the options you have in the form of codes and regulations to tackle such unwanted employees’ issues.
Moreover, there are certain questions you can’t ask the candidates during the hiring process. Because some questions are discriminative in nature and can land you in danger. The reputation your business, which you have compiled bit by bit over the years, is all set to crumble if your company is dubbed as biased.
An attorney, for example, an attorney in Kokomo, can make a suitable draft of questions to be asked in an interview. That way, you will gain insight into the interviewee without putting yourself in any danger of legal trouble.
Drafting contracts
When you are running a business, you are in for drafting a lot of contracts. There will be different contracts for suppliers, customers, and employees. Of course, you need an expert lawyer to draft them because a single clause or your failure of interpretation can cause legal hiccups for you down the road.
Other than drafting, if you are asked to sign a contract by the other party, never put your signature without asking your attorney to go through it. The legal loopholes could be so small that they need an experienced and professional eye to detect them.
State and federal laws
State and federal laws are different. You have to consider both of them for the processes like taking your business overseas, filing taxes and so on. You may be an absolute gem at research, but the chances are that you will leave some loopholes which can cost you dearly in the form of penalty. And in the meantime, you will be distracted from your work which is like inviting a bigger disaster.
What’s more, these laws keep changing so staying updated is another hurdle. The government can sue your business if you are not vigorously following its laws. Therefore, firstly, the odds are you will not be sued after receiving the services of an attorney. And even if your business is liable to legal action by government, you can rely on your attorney to sail through it.
Tackling environmental issues
Climate change has become a grave concern worldwide. Already so many species have been extinguished due to the plastic and other types of pollution. That’s the reason governments all around the world have realized the quantum of this threat and have introduced tighter legal obligations.
So if you are found involved in spreading pollution in any form, you will need an attorney to defend your business. So much so, the government can sue you for indirectly being caught up in the menace. For example, if you have bought a piece of land that contains dangerous substances under its surface, you can face legal offshoots of this.
However, if you have hired an attorney, you can sue the seller for selling you inappropriate land and the selling party will be responsible to pay for clean up costs.
Buying and selling a business
Don’t think that buying and selling a business is a smaller affair. It’s not as simple as selling and buying a car or other expensive commodities. There are too many complications in this process right from the word go.
Oftentimes, people undervalue or overvalue their business. An attorney can evaluate the worth of a business better than a layman. it is because a professional attorney would have complete know-how about the valuation methodology.
Along with this, writing appropriate acquisitions, purchasing agreements, transfer permits, licenses and a lot of other stuff goes into the buying and selling process. To sum up, an attorney, who is well-versed in business affairs, is indispensable for the smooth transaction of business.
The final verdict
Be it a small business or a big multinational, you literally can’t skip the legal hurdles. Without hiring an attorney, the chances are that you would spend most of your time on legal matters rather than being attentive to your business.
