If you are starting a business for the first time, it is easy to let the positive thinking go a little too far. While you certainly need a positive mindset to surmount all the challenges that will come your way, you need to accept that sometimes challenges cannot be overcome by positive thinking and hard work alone.
Understanding from the outset that many businesses, partnerships, mergers and more fail, is crucial. It allows you to build in legal avenues to deal with such occasions. Here are some examples:
Something goes wrong and someone wants to sue you
It happens. For example, almost half of all physicians will face a malpractice lawsuit by the time they reach 55. Imagine you were setting up your first private practice. You’d want to ensure you had great insurance against such events. You’d also want to choose a business structure that separates your assets from the assets belonging to the business, to avoid putting your home and other personal assets at risk over business problems.
You cannot continue running the business
What if you have a crash on your way home from work today and are left in a coma? How will the business run without you in the meantime? What if you never come out of that coma? You should have a succession plan that covers your temporary and permanent loss to the company. Otherwise, if something happens to you, the business could grind to a halt.
There is so much to consider when starting a business that it is easy to overlook such possibilities. It’s wise to get guidance to help you examine the legal options to prepare for such eventualities.