Prepare Your Business Legally This New Year

As 2019 is coming to an end, it is only essential to know how you can legally prepare your business this coming new year. So to help you out, I decided to gather the essential things that that you need to prepare for your business this coming new year.

Preparing the things below will also ensure that your business won’t have any problems in the coming year, and all you have to think of is how you can make your business more successful.

1. Real Estate

When it comes to your real estate, you need to make sure that you have a full audit of all your estate assets. This will help make sure that you can evaluate all the sale contracts, purchases, and leases properly. If you own a property where there are maintenance contracts, you need to make sure to include them in the audit. Yes, whether it’d be a janitorial staff, service contracts, or any other employees, you need to make sure that they are all included.

If you are paying for maintenance for a common area, taxes, and other repairs and replacement, you need to include these things as well. Every single detail in your real estate should be audited no matter how small or big the expenses are.

2. Asset Protection

Of course, you also need to discuss your asset protection, which includes your insurance policies. The insurance policies should be discussed with your equipment and real estate. You need to make sure if your real estate and all the categorized equipment are protected. You also need to make sure that you have a specific point of contact for real estate and one for the insurance.

There are some instances where only one agent is handling all of these things, but it is also ideal to have two different agents to help you handle these things. Also, make sure that all of your equipment is accounted for.

3. Corporate Governance

You need to know who handles your business’ corporate governance. If you have a public company, you need to know who is responsible with the public filing with the SEC. You also need to know who takes care of the agenda and the meeting with the board. As someone who owns a business, you need to make sure that you know who does all of the things mentioned above.

Also, you need to make sure that the company set of books are all in place. You need to make sure how they are formalized, and if they are online or in your corporate office.

4. Intellectual Property

Another thing that you need to do is to make sure that all of the published work of your company are all copyrighted. You need to make sure that all of your proprietary codes are all patented, and you should speak with your consultant about the needed IP counsel. The counsel can be an outside counsel or an in-house one.

Now, if your company is a consumer brand, you need to discuss and check the trademarks, and if all products are trademarked.

5. Employees

You should also need to conduct an audit of your employees. You need to check all of your employees and if each of them has a nondisclosure agreement. Another thing that you need to make sure of is if all of them signed the agreement to ensure the protection of your trade secrets.

Of course, you also need to make sure that all agreements are reviewed before letting them sign it. You should also check if there are non-solicitation and non-compete agreements. All of these are important, especially in the digital age. Review all of these to avoid having issues when the new year comes.

Conclusion

These are all of the things that you need to be legally prepared for your business in the coming new year. Ensuring that all of these are taken care of, make sure that your business will start strong and will remain protected.

Based on Materials from Forbes
Photo Sources: Expatica, Prosperity Advisers, Forbes