You might not realise this but your business could be exposed to a variety of legal issues that could end up costing you and your business an absolute fortune. You probably think that this isn’t relative to you because you would never intentionally break the law, but it doesn’t have to be intentional. The line between legal and illegal is thinner than most people think. As well as this, even failing to protect your customers or clients can leave you open to issues. So, let’s look at the problems and the potential solutions.
Legal Hits You Could Encounter
You might find that an employee, a member of the public or a customer is injured while you are operating in your business. If this happens, that will leave you open to a large and potentially expensive lawsuit. These types of lawsuits are quite common with thousands coming in every month. Payouts can be large too, often reaching hundreds of thousands in damages.
Alternatively, you could find that a client or a customer complains about your level of service. They might even say that you made a mistake which negatively impacted them or their business. Freelancers have to be careful of this because a small business can make a claim and cripple you financially.
Or, perhaps you lost customer data. An issue that puts a large group of customers at risk can lead to a class action lawsuit or a case where you will be facing payments to numerous claimants. This has become a serious issue as of late due to the increase in cyber crimes.
The Solutions You Need
First, do make sure that you have the necessary insurance in place for all these issues. There are various types of insurance that you can set up for your business, such as employers liability. This coverage will ensure that if an employee is injured working for you, you’ll be able to afford the compensation costs easily. What you spend on insurance will certainly be worth it in the long run
While insurance will solve most of the financial issues you could encounter, you can also stop the overall issues from developing. You can avoid most issues with injuries by maintaining and operating a safe work environment. Appointing a health and safety officer can ensure that any hazards are dealt with before they cause an accident.
As for customer issues, you can’t always prevent problems here. But you can certainly make sure that the data is safe. You can do this with an SOC audits. There are various types of SOC audits and if you’re wondering whether you need one, just ask your customers. They’ll question whether their data is safe which you can prove with an SOC audit.
Ultimately, you can avoid lawsuits as long as you make sure that you aren’t cutting corners and that you are setting up the right way with the appropriate controls and plans in place. Fail to do this and there could be more than your business at risk.
