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Smart Ways to Protect Your Business legally

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When you run a business, whether it is a small side-hustle or a large corporation, it is smart to protect your company from legal action in any way you can.  Most big businesses have a legal team on staff to deal with this kind of stuff and stop their businesses from being sued, but most small companies don’t have the same luxury, which means they don’t always do everything they can to cover themselves. You need to make sure you don’t fall into the same trap, and here are some smart ways to start…

Protect your website

It’s 2020, so we’re going to assume your business has a website. If that’s the case, you need to ensure that it’s covered. How do you do that? Start by ensuring that your website contains a privacy policy as well as a terms and conditions section and a disclaimer.

Depending on where you’re based, having a privacy policy is likely to be a legal requirement if you collect customer data, including email addresses, or if you have a form that allows customers to contact you. It should tell people about when and how you collect information and how you use the data you collect.

Your terms and conditions section should lay out the rules and regulations for individuals who visit your site, whereas your website disclaimer should tell visitors who your company is, what you do, and what your qualifications are.

If you’re unsure, it might be a good idea to have an experienced third-party draw these three things up for you, so that you can be sure all bases are covered and easily understandable by your customers.

Always have a contract

It’s always a good idea to have a contract attorney you trust on hand to write up contracts for you. Whether you’re working with a new client and you want to set out the terms of payment/ contract delivery, you’re going into partnership with another business person and you want to protect your interests, or you’re hiring a new employee and you want to be very clear about what is expected of them and what they can expect from you in return, having something down in writing is always going to offer you a greater level of protection than a verbal agreement, which cannot be proven. Contracts set boundaries and that means that as long as you abide by them, you will be safe from legal action.

Stay within your area of expertise

Something that many business owners overlook as a good way to protect themselves legally is staying within the scope they have defined for their business. For example, if you were a personal trainer, it would be foolish to give out medical advice, especially without first informing the person that you are not qualified to do so. It’s far more sensible to stick to what you know and operate within those limits than it is to venture out into the unknown. Of course, if you do want to expand in other areas, it’s fine to do so, but ONLY once you have acquired the knowledge, skills, and qualifications to do so, otherwise you might find yourself named in a rather hefty lawsuit.

Protect your business and protect yourself!

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