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As a young entrepreneur, you want to grow your business and realize your dreams. This is understandable, but understanding the potential legal challenges you could face is vital to make sure your business operates safely and legally and this is what we discuss below.
A major area for concern is intellectual property including protecting your business assets, products, and branding, while avoiding potential legal issues when using material from other businesses. This can include:
Branding
Copyright protections
Breaking copyright
Trademarks and patents
You must give thought to protecting your intellectual property therefore before you go public with your new business venture. This could mean applying for patents, and registering business assets as trademarks.
Modern entrepreneurs also have to increasingly worry about potential online legal action and may need to enlist the services of a lawyer. Potential issues that could arise from your online activities include online harassment, legal action taken as a result of your online content, and employee online activity.
Whenever you engage in online activities, whether it's on social media, email, or your website, be sure to protect yourself and understand the potential legal implications your actions could have.
As a self-employed entrepreneur you are solely responsible for your finances and taxes and this is one of the main planning points you should consider to avoid legal issues. It’s vital to keep your accounts up to date and record all your financial transactions.
Additionally, you must adhere to the state and federal tax procedures, file your tax returns promptly, and understand what you do and don’t have to declare.If you have minimal knowledge in this area, it could be beneficial to hire an accountant to deal with your finances and help with your tax returns.
When starting as an entrepreneur, you are often working alone, but as you expand, you may expand your team or workforce, including hiring freelancers or employing staff. If this happens, you must be up to date with employment law in the US including factors like employee rights, employee contacts, sick pay, and holiday allowance. Failure to give your employees proper rights and benefits could cause serious legal issues.
You must also consider the actions of your staff and understand what to do if they are embroiled in any criminal cases that could potentially affect the reputation and operations of your business. For example, if an employee was involved in a serious felony such as murder charges or firearm offenses, you would need legal advice from lawyers like Garland, Samuel & Loeb and consider the reputational fallout.
You may self-fund your new entrepreneurial venture, or you may have gathered funds from various investment sources. Either way, you must be clear on the management of your investment funds including:
Legal transfer of investment funds
Contractual agreements of investment funds
Navigating investor relations
Resolution of payouts and stakeholder dividends
If you don’t do this, you could find yourself in legal trouble from things like beaches of contract or mismanagement of investment funds.
In most instances, if you act responsibly and within the logical boundaries of the law, you shouldn’t experience any legal issues. As you can see above, different aspects of your business venture can be incredibly complex and have legal nuances you may not have considered. This is why it’s important to understand the potential challenges you could face as an entrepreneur.
