You’ve built your business from the ground up and now it’s a success. You want to keep it that way, but you also want to protect your hard work and assets. Whether you’re a startup with one employee or a national chain with hundreds of employees, there are steps you can take to minimize the risk of lawsuits against your company and ensure that any litigation will have little impact on your bottom line. Here are some tips to help you no matter where you are in your business journey.
Assess Risks, Opportunities, and Threats
Many larger corporations employ entire risk management and legal teams to help with this. But for many companies, there may not be resources in the budget to cover full-time staff. Instead, you can use Virtual Chief Information Security Services, or vCISO services for short, to manage risk for your company. While many of these virtual services focus on information security and data security, some of their concepts and processes can extend into other parts of your business as well. As you assess these risks, it’s important to put things in place to help reduce risk and the likelihood of getting sued. These can be in anything from your building security to your HR processes and everything in between.
Hire an Experienced Attorney
Hiring an experienced attorney to help you with your legal needs is one of the most important steps you can take to protect your business from litigation. When it comes to hiring a lawyer, experience matters. The more experience your attorney has, the better he or she will be able to guide you through any legal issues that may arise during your time as a small business owner.
For example, if a customer files suit against you for injuries sustained on the premises, having an experienced attorney on your side could save you time and money in court costs as well as prevent further damage if the case goes poorly for you. Additionally, it’s essential that any attorney whom you hire has experience working with businesses similar in nature and scope as yours because they’ll be able to offer advice specific to those types of businesses.
Use Non-Compete Agreements
Non-compete agreements are a way to protect your business from competitors. They prevent employees from working for competitors and can also protect you from losing customers and employees if an employee leaves your business to work for a competitor. Be careful with them however, trying to restrict where your employees can work after they leave your company can get a little hairy. You want to ensure you are following all applicable laws.
Place an Emphasis on Data Security
Confidential information is the lifeblood of your business, and you should do everything in your power to protect it. This includes restricting access to sensitive records and physical assets, such as a server room or office building. You also need to set standards that you train your employees to ensure they create healthy habits that protect sensitive data as well. Make sure all employees understand what confidential information is considered private by your company. Provide training on how malware works so that everyone understands what malware looks like, and what signs indicate if a breach has occurred.
Protect Confidential Information
You should always protect confidential information, not only because it’s a legal requirement and moral obligation, but also because it’s a business necessity. If you don’t, you risk losing customers and profits. When you’re in the process of doing business with someone, whether it’s an employee or contractor, they will share sensitive data with you.
That includes any personal information that could be used to harm them, as well as any non-public trade secrets or other important competitive intelligence about their company or industry. As soon as this happens, you must take steps to protect both the confidentiality of that information and its integrity from being modified or corrupted by unauthorized persons who may have access to your computers or networked devices.
Train Employees About Legal Liability
Train employees about privacy and data protection. Teach them about not letting unauthorized people into the building. You also need to teach employees about non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) and about non-compete agreements (NCAs). You can also train employees about contracts in general, including employment contracts, contractor and consultant agreements, vendor/supplier contracts, customer support/service agreements, and so on.
