Lawsuits are an unpleasant fact of life, but there are ways to ensure they don’t become a fact in your life. While you should always strive to do business honestly, fairly, and safely, you still need to protect your assets in the face of a potential lawsuit. To better do that, learn how to protect your business from liabilities.
Incorporate
You and your business should be separate entities; otherwise, you subject yourself to a potential settlement that collects on your individual property. You could lose your home, savings, and other personal assets as a result. When you incorporate, only your company is potentially liable for injuries suffered by employees, malpractice, product liability, and so forth. Your company is still liable, but it can only help the corporation if your personal assets remain untouchable. Consider incorporation even if your business is small or if you’re the only employee because sole proprietorships must deal with liability on both their personal and business assets.
Get Insured
When wondering how to protect your business from liabilities, don’t forget to get all the liability insurance you can afford. Being insured is another layer of protection for your company and personal assets. General liability insurance is a wise investment but talk with your provider about the specific types of coverage demanded by your field or industry. While insurance comes with its regular monthly costs, it’s better to have them pay out for legal services and settlements results rather than drawing from your own assets. Liability insurance pays off in many ways.
Look Out for Your Workers and Customers
What’s the best defense against lawsuits? Caring about and looking out for your clients and employees. Keep a safe workplace by implementing and enforcing safety protocols. Conduct regular fire drills and training about avoiding or dealing with medical and other emergencies so that your workers are knowledgeable and protected from harm. Make cleanliness and organization a virtue in your facility, ensuring trash doesn’t accumulate and risk fires or injuries to life and limb. And keep the area surrounding your facility clean, safe, and secure, from the landscaping to the parking area to the streets on every side. Remove the danger and eliminate liability.
Get It in Writing
If you want to protect yourself from liability, make sure that you trust the people you’re doing business with. Do credit and background checks to ensure they’re on the up and up, and when you enter contracts, ensure they’ve been reviewed by your attorney first and won’t leave you open to lawsuits. Keep good records on everything you do (including emails, texts, phone calls, and the like), and back it all up, electronically and in hard copies. When you have the facts and signed forms on hand, you’ll be both forewarned and forearmed for any difficulties.
The Edge Staff
