If you approached medical issues the way that most small business owners approach legal issues, you would do this: you would avoid regular checkups; you would get all of your medical information from WebMD; you would ignore weird pains, rashes, or other symptoms; you would attempt to set your own broken bones. Ultimately, you would address all of your medical issues on the surgeon’s table or in the emergency room.
Waiting until a legal issue turns into a dispute is like waiting for a mild medical symptom to turn into something that requires an operation. And imagine that insurance doesn’t cover the operation and the doctor won’t operate unless you pay a good portion of their bill in advance. This approach is expensive, disruptive, and potentially deadly.
Yet this is how so many small business owners approach legal issues. They avoid talking to lawyers until they need the attention of a litigator and their correspondingly high bills. That’s like solving all of your medical problems in the operating room. But, by addressing legal issues early and regularly, small business owners can actually decrease their chances of needing a litigator’s services. Not always — but often (just like we can’t always avoid needing surgery, even if we do everything right).
By seeking a lawyer's advice early on, you are actually investing in your business by ensuring that all of its components are functioning as well as they can. You are being proactive and making sure that, for instance, the brand name that you have chosen can actually get trademark protection or that your contracts actually work in your favor.
By getting the legal issues right the first time, businesses can actually put themselves in a better position to maximize other investments. They can get better terms from suppliers or partners, ensure robust brand protection, and make sure that they have chosen the right type of business entity for their venture. Finally, by having regular a relationship with a lawyer, small business owners can nip potential legal issues in the bud, when they are cheap to fix.
No matter what, all small businesses should know that legal will be part of their budget. The difference is that by hiring a business lawyer early on, and working with them as a partner as your business grows, you get to control how that money is spent, instead of waiting for a litigator to present you with a bill.
If you're a small business owner and have questions about how we can be of service, give us a call at 253.858.5434 to set up an appointment today. We represent clients throughout Washington and Idaho and are available to meet in person, by phone, or via Skype or FaceTime.