Fire your Accountant & Hire a Partner

How to avoid costly legal action – don’t do these things.

Posted on 23 March 2010

Legal fees can cost your business plenty! As a small business owner, you need to act correctly to avoid legal action. This requires one thing…..patience.

Your small business can be as important to you as your family, sometimes even more important.  So it is easy to get emotionally caught up in what is going on, who is affecting your profit and standing in the way of your growth.  Most of these circumstances are enough to go to war over. You want to: Fight, Fight, Fight, especially when you are Right, Right, Right.

But and I mean a Big But! Slow down cowboy.  Being right and winning a legal battle are two different things.  ”What?” you say. Yes, it is true and worth repeating – being right & morally correct and winning legally are not the synonymous. In business, winning a legal battle requires one critical item….

Loss, loss of profit, sales, opportunity, etc, etc, etc.  Proving loss is not always easy. It can take some time and lots of documentation to show evidence of loss.  This is a hard road to go down as you must be prepared to be in “fight mode” for a long time. This can be a big distraction to your forward growth and profit making efforts.

What not to do:

1. Get angry and talk to others about your supposed oppresser.
2. Write about the supposed offence in detail.
3. Talk to them directly about the offense.

The most important thing you can do is calm down and get wise council. Talk to a lawyer, or someone who has been through what you are experiencing. Most importantly, do not talk to the offender about your plans or actions.

Carefully plan your strategy and look at all the possible ways you might loose. Because, like I said before, being right and winning in court are not always the same person.  Maybe it’s better to do nothing?

What to do:

1. Get legal counsel
2. Do not communicate about the issue outside of your legal relationships.
3. Journal everything you can about the event.
4. Be calm, (easy to say, try anyway).

A long legal battle can kill your small business financially. Only go to war when you are properly prepared to win.

On your team,

Mark