A lot of entrepreneurs start out bootstrapping their business, which boils down to doing everything on their own. It’s common and often a reality, which leads to owners taking on more than they can handle in the beginning to get the business off the ground. Eventually, as the business begins to grow and the thought of scaling comes, there comes a time when efficiency and effectiveness will probably mean outsourcing some of the ancillary business needs to 3rd parties.
Important business functions such as legal, accounting, payroll, customer service and other areas are commonly outsourced so business owners and employees can focus their attention on the job duties and move the company forward. Outsourcing can be very beneficial to established businesses or during a business startup phase. It’s a way to control and minimize costs, improve business focus, minimize risk and streamline time consuming tasks.
Legal needs are often something that gets pushed to the side and put off until later - usually later ends up being a dispute or lawsuit, which is going to be a major blow to normal operations. But legal needs shouldn’t be a burden on the company, and they shouldn’t be ignored until it’s too late - the solution for most businesses is to simply outsource legal and risk management by hiring a business lawyer. Don’t worry, it’s going to be okay and there is nothing wrong with asking for help, all businesses need it.
Understandably most businesses are nervous about legal services, and if they aren’t facing a dispute or lawsuit, the prevailing attitude is to just ignore legal all together - why spend money on expensive services that I don’t even need, I don’t have any legal issues. (FYI: legal services can be cost effective and you probably do have legal issues you don’t even recognize.) Those are understandable concerns, but here are a couple of reasons why small and medium sized businesses should hire a business attorney.
Save Money and Time
In all likelihood nobody on your team is a lawyer, and you aren’t big enough to justify the costs of having in-house counsel, so you don’t have anyone who is used to dealing with legal and risk management. This means you aren’t getting high quality, regular advice on how to proactively reduce the legal issues your company may face.
Legal and risk management isn’t something that gets done once and everything is good to go. It’s an ongoing process, with moving targets, rules, regulations and laws that change regularly. Not to mention general advising around legal and strategy as your business continues to grow and move forward. Sure, in a perfect world you’d have someone on your team who could make time to manage all of that, but the reality is you don’t. That’s a dedicated job for someone, not a side project that can be sporadically worked on, and it’s usually not cost effective to have that job handled in house. This leads to legal and risk management being pushed to the back burner because your workers have more important responsibilities, and the business ends up exposed to significant risks and legal issues that probably could have been avoided.
Outsourcing your legal and risk is going to be cheaper (especially if it’s done before you’re facing a lawsuit) and more efficient; why would you want to spend 4 hours figuring out how to create a contract when you could have spent that time generating revenue for the company. On the flip side, why would you risk downloading a contract not created for your specific company that may end up costing you tens of thousands in a dispute. Free up some time, get some peace of mind and have efficient management of your company’s legal and risk issues.
You Get A Dedicated Risk Management Resource
It’s unlikely you have someone on your team that’s a lawyer and deals with business legal issues on a regular basis. There would be a huge benefit to using someone on your internal team to handle legal and risk. They’re always there, know how the business works, understanding your company and the culture it’s built around. There’s just one problem here, the people inside your company have other things to do.
What if you could get someone who understands how your business, works, is accessible, knows the company and culture and whose job it is to manage and advise you on risk and legal issues around your business? Hard to believe, but it is doable.
You should be looking for a law firm that can provide you a dedicated attorney, who will know the ends and outs of your business - not somewhere that’s going to pass your work down to the next associate or paralegal in line every time a problem comes up. You're looking for someone you can build a strategic partnership with and above all someone who’s singular focus when it comes to your business in on one thing: strategic advising and counseling to address and avoid legal issues and risk. It’s their job to apply their knowledge and expertise to protecting your company, and free you up to work on growing the business and generating revenue.
If you’ve ignored legal services or you’re piecemealing it yourself and you’ve hesitated to get a business, don’t worry, you can easily fix that issue. Your business is successful because you’re good at what you do and an expert in your field, but you’re probably not a lawyer. Don’t waste valuable time that could impact your success trying to address, or not address, legal and risk issues - outsource it to a trusted legal adviser who can empower your business and let you keep your focus on the business itself. The right legal partner can even save your company money and have a positive impact on your bottom line.
If you’re looking for a trusted legal partner Launch is here to help; reach out to us to set up a call.