Protect your business start-up before you hurt yourself

A business start-up may often overlook the importance of a well thought out legal foundation and the impact it may have on their ability to succeed, attract capital and expand in the future. While it’s probably the last thing on your mind (or close to it) when developing your idea and building your networks, if something goes wrong having the right legal protection in place can be the difference between success and closing your doors for good. 

Business Structure

No two business start-ups are the same. Having the right business structure for your specific start-up is crucial if you want to maximise profits and minimise liability.

Four key points to consider when choosing the right business structure are:

  1. Where you want liability to fall if something goes wrong
  2. Whether you have (or plan to have) partners/co-founders or investors
  3. The cost of setting up and maintaining your business structure
  4. Tax implications

A structure popular with start-ups is a proprietary limited company (Pty Ltd), as it has strong liability protections, tax benefits and allows you to allocate shares. However, there are high set-up fees and ongoing costs.

There’s also the option of partnerships if you have multiple founders and want to pool income, expertise and resources. On the other hand, if you’re looking for the lowest-cost option and you are on your own, becoming a sole trader might be the option for you. However, these structures don’t offer as many tax benefits and less protection from liability.

It’s also important to put any agreements you make with your co-founders in writing, (i.e. Shareholder’s Agreement or Partnership Agreement). This makes sure everyone is clear on how the start-up will be run, who owns what, and will minimise misunderstandings.

Business Start-up and your Intellectual Property

As a business start-up, IP is an important part of what distinguishes your products or services in the marketplace and the branding you portray to your customers. Having sufficient IP protections in place prevents people from copying your branding, website content or original product and from essentially piggy-backing off your reputation and goodwill.

A couple of things to look out for when it comes to IP: 

business-startup-lawyers-bondi-junction

Register your Business Start-up Trade Marks

Trade marks can be a word, logo, picture, product shape, colour or any other aspect of branding. It’s not compulsory to register your mark, as over time you develop some ownership rights through public awareness. However it’s always a good idea to register because enforcing your rights will be much easier in the event of an infringement. 

What about Copyright?

Copyright protects any expression of ideas and applies to literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works. It’s an automatic right, so you don’t need to worry about registering or issuing copyright notices. As long as your idea is “original”, utilises a degree of skill, and created by a human, it will generally be protected for 70 years following your death. 

Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDA’s)

Always use NDA’s! These are essential if you want to talk about your idea with potential co-founders or capital providers. These agreements ensure that no-one can discuss or use your idea without your express permission. If you don’t have an NDA, it’s harder to stop people from stealing your ideas

For now, as a business start-up, this may all seem like pointless extra work, but if you take some time at the beginning of your journey to make sure you tick the right legal boxes and protect yourself, you won’t have to worry about hurting yourself when something goes wrong.

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Mark Lazarus

Mark Lazarus, the visionary behind the business and the fresh blood of the Lazarus Legal team, Mark (or Laz as he is often known) owes much of his success to his past experiences. And he’s made it his personal goal to bring that wisdom and formula to the firm.

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Barry Lazarus

CEO & Notary Public

barry@lazaruslegal.com.au 

We’d be lying if we told you that this bloke isn’t the big honcho of our team, but his name is a dead give-away. The founder of Lazarus Legal, Barry is an old school, tough as nails lawyer. They don’t forge litigators like this anymore.

With decades of experience in both Australia and South Africa, his wisdom is as renowned as his name. Back in the days when Schwarzenegger and Van Damme were kicking ass on VHS, Barry was kicking ass in the courtroom. And after all these years, he still has a reputation for refusing to back down.Barry is definitely the badass you’d want in a fight – in court or otherwise. But really, he’s a big softie. Just don’t let him know you know that (although he probably won’t read this anyway – navigating the Internet is not his strong point).

Aside from putting other lawyers in their place, taking long walks on the beach and spending time with his family, Barry enjoys seeing others succeed. Not only is Barry a staunch and unmoving litigator, he has sharp business and commercial acumen having started up ventures from scratch and growing them into full-blown franchises – from real estate to creating ice cream, to making pasta. With his experience on both sides of the commercial and legal equation, you want this guy to be on your side, whether you’re the next Zuckerberg realising your genius, or the next Zuckerberg taking on your opponents in court.

When Barry is not busy lawyering about, he is a part-time lawn bowler and a wannabe comedian, but never took both as a day job, because let’s face it, he’s a lot better at his day job.

If someone ever threatens you to lawyer up…relax, call Barry and he’ll handle the rest. 

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Mark Lazarus Director

Mark Lazarus

Director

mark@lazaruslegal.com.au 

The visionary behind the business and the fresh blood of the Lazarus Legal team, Mark (or Laz as he is often known) owes much of his success to his past stories and experiences. And he’s made it his personal goal to bring that wisdom and formula to the firm.

He’s a bit of jet setter, splitting his time between Australia and the UK, maximising every hour of his professional life. He thrives on this adrenalin. It allowed him to work in private practice in Sydney, act for a host of famous celebrities in London, do a two year stint as a NSW barrister (and not the pretentious coffee type in the Melbourne laneways) and more recently did a gig as the Legal Director covering Europe, the Middle East and Africa for one of the world’s coolest fast-moving consumer good brands!  

As an Aussie and UK lawyer and former barrister, Mark not only has the gift of the gab but he’ll walk the walk to prove it too. He likes to think he’s a bit like Harvey Specter or Michael Corleone, the main difference is you can actually retain him as your lawyer and consigliere. He’ll tell you how it really is and will take on any challenge head on. Although litigation and court advocacy comes naturally to him, commercial and IP is what gets his blood pumping! 

When Mark is not out there doing his thing, you will probably catch him chilling at home with his family, on the sidelines of the soccer (football) pitch cheering on his two boys, crawling through mud obstacles, or training hard at the gym. Passion and commitment is what drives Mark to succeed, along with his burning desire to disrupt the legal profession by finding new ways to change the game.

He has sights on the future. So if you’re breaking new ground, ahead of the times, and on the verge of something big, but you need someone who’s got your back and who can give you straight up advice, this is the guy you will want on speed dial.

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