By Munro Doig Lawyers

10/22/2024 Starting your own business takes a lot of gumption, and it takes hours of planning, and taking a lot of variables into consideration. Once the business has taken off, though, entrepreneurs assume that the hardest part is over, and that the day-to-day running of things will take care of themselves by and by. However, once the business is up and running, the real work starts. Hiring people, setting the process for the tasks, creating and drawing up contracts for the employees, framing buy-sell agreements with partners etc. are all activities that need to be done as soon as you have launched, and need your utmost attention. That being said, these are also activities that fall under the category of things you could do by yourself.

There are some aspects of the running of the business for which you will need experts to show you how to do things by the book, namely a good commercial lawyer in Perth. There are some activities that fall under the category of legal issues that some business owners are not familiar with or sometimes fail to give top priority to. However, these are the type of actions that go into smart business planning and ensuring that the business is protected against troubles in the future. Your Perth tax lawyer is the best person to guide you in the following actions that could provide your business the legal protection and enable you to have a smoothly running business:

1. 
   Negotiation of Sales and Acquisitions: Corporate lawyers, or commercial lawyers assist companies in managing mergers and acquisitions, by entering into negotiations with the target entity, coming up with an MOU (memorandum of understanding), and conducting due diligence on the target company i.e. assessing what legal liabilities exist etc.


2. 
   Corporate Governance: new business owners are sometimes not aware of importance of the on-going legal requirements that enable a company to maintain its corporation status. This includes holding annual shareholder, director and partner meetings, recording the minutes of meetings held, and the election of officers, the process of which has to conform to state requirements. Hiring a highly recommended commercial lawyer in Perth will ensure that you receive regular reminders and updates on whether these actions are being carried out to the full requirements.


3. 
   Legal Protection of Intellectual Property: a company has many intangible assets, like the brand name, the logo, the company name and other goods and services that are not tangible goods and are commonly termed as 'intellectual property'. A commercial lawyer will guide you on the policies for legally protecting and copywriting said properties through patents, trademark registrations and other methods. This can also be done through employment agreements that have to be signed by all employees of the company. Commercial lawyers will help you draw up the non-disclosure and non-compete agreements for your employees.


4. 
   Tax and Litigation: if you were to hire a Perth tax lawyer, he or she would guide you in the filing of taxes and the payment of the same, on an annual basis. A tax lawyer also has a key role to play in the process of auditing, in advising you on keeping your papers in order, and providing the right information during the time of audit.

These are only a few of the major areas in the running of your business where a commercial lawyer can guide and advice you. You can get in touch with any of the tax lawyers or the commercial lawyers in Perth to get more advice on this.


The author is a practicing tax lawyer in Perth and is a partner in a leading law firm. He frequently shares tax related information to his readers in his blog. Visit https://www.munrodoig.com.au for more details.