There are businesses that make resolutions and goals every new year. Many businesses under-rate the importance of legal issues when making resolutions, yet they are crucial to surviving or adapting to the ever-changing business environment.
Here are 7 legal resolutions to consider in 2023.
Include legal expenses when preparing your annual budget
This is the time when businesses prepare their annual budget. Have you considered budgeting for legal expenses as a budgetary item?
Including legal fees in your budget means that your business will have a provision to meet this expense.
Making this budgetary provision means you will be able to forecast this expense and avoid surprises when the time arises.
Purchase some legal resources for businesses
We live in a knowledge era where a lot of information is available. There are several resources you can consider purchasing to help your business in legal matters.
One good resource is a legal-do-it-yourself kit for businesses. Such a kit provides you with sample documents and letters drafted by lawyers. This means that for a one-off purchase, you are able to access some documents.
This saves you on legal fees while at the same time ensuring that your legal risk is minimised.
Another good purchase would be a simple legal dictionary to assist you to understand the legalese in simple terms. A general business law handbook.
Subscribe to legal information channels
There are many legal information channels that are available for businesses. For instance, on YouTube there are very many channels you can subscribe to, to keep up to date with the goings on in the legal world.
Such channels help demystify legal issues and at times provide general analytical information that would be valuable for your business.
Supposing a new law is enacted, a legal information channel would explain its importance to your business.
There are also some podcasts available for example The Legal Talk Network for global legal news and others available locally.
Follow legal thought leaders and experts on social media
These thought leaders and experts often post very useful content, for example, their opinion on certain laws. Thought leaders are a source of very valuable legal information. It would be good to follow such leaders; after all, it is free of charge!
Upskill
There are simple law courses for non-lawyers available online. Their importance is that they provide you with basic legal knowledge crucial for business. Some must-have skills include negotiation skills and the essentials of good contracts. These can be self-taught.
Conduct your annual legal checkup
An annual legal checkup is a service offered by a lawyer and is known as a legal audit. Your lawyer would perform an analysis of all aspects of your business to assess legal risk and recommend risk mitigation.
Alternatively, you could purchase do-it-yourself checklists that would be helpful in assisting your business to assess its legal risk.
Using the checklist, you would take a critical look at all aspects of your business and be able to self-evaluate your legal risk exposure.
Legalising entails taking steps to comply with the law and desisting from doing what contravenes the law. It is a huge step in conducting your business ethically. An example is getting a licence for your business.
