If you have ambitions to start your own business then you will need to ensure that you don’t overlook some key commercial law issues.
It is easy to get carried away with the desire and passion of starting your own business.
But the success of your start up can be undermined down the road if you ignore some fundamental and crucial legal and statutory requirements concerning
- Employment law
- Contract law
- Franchise opportunities
- Intellectual property rights including copyright, business names, trade marks
- Company registration
- Partnership law
- Data protection
- Consumer rights
- Product liability
- Debt collection
- Buying or selling a business
- And so on.
It is critical that you are well advised at the outset and that you put some of your budget aside for good professional advice from an accountant and solicitor.
Business ideas and business plan template
You may start off with the most original business ideas and the soundest business plan template, investment secured and an ambition and commitment to work hard.
It is truly soul destroying then to find that just when you are breaking even or showing a profit that something that was glossed over in drafting contracts for your employees or in leasing a premises or in failing to register a business name or trade mark can set you back disastrously.
The early part of a start up venture can suck cash and investment at an alarming rate and for this reason it can be easy to overlook the “boring stuff” like legal or accounting obligations.
But if the Revenue Commissioners come calling or if a rival is hurting you by passing off their goods in a confusing way with your business offering you can be severely distracted from the core task of growing your business at a critical phase in it’s development.
Partnership law
Many friends or work colleagues start up businesses but fail to put proper structures in place, for example a written partnership agreement. Failure to do so can have serious consequences if there is a dispute or falling out which is, unfortunately, quite common.
If you set up a company you may be well advised to have a shareholders’ agreement drafted to govern your relationship with the other shareholders and protect your interest if you are in a minority situation. Frequently deadlock can arise between partners or shareholders where both partners have an equal stake in the business.
The issues outlined above are just some of the many issues which can crop up; being aware of these potential problems at the outset and making provision for them will, in the long run, be one of the smartest decisions you will have made in your business life.