New Year's resolutions for your business - Feb 07

Christmas is over and you have made your New Year's resolutions - get fit, go on a diet and walk the dog more often.  But what about your business?  Now is the ideal time to take stock and make sure that it is in tip top shape for the year ahead.

Check your Employment Contracts - Keeping pace with changes in employment law is a challenge for every business.  Recent changes include new maternity and paternity regulations and age discrimination regulations.  Check your contracts, policies and procedures to make sure that you are compliant.

Give your Terms and Conditions a Spring Clean - Trading terms & conditions get out of date.  Too often businesses do not take the trouble to review their terms & conditions until a problem crops up.  Reviewing them every few years is good practice and, in the long run, can save a lot of grief.   

Consider using Purchase Conditions - If you read your suppliers’ terms & conditions they will not make happy reading.  Are you in the fortunate position where you can dictate terms to some of your suppliers?  If so, acquire a good set of purchase conditions to impose on them instead. 

Carry Out an Intellectual Property (“IP”) Audit - Every business creates IP, from copyright and designs to trade marks and inventions. IP can be of real value but is often overlooked as an asset. Consequently, it can remain unprotected. An IP audit will allow you to take stock of what IP you have and whether you are doing all you can to protect it and maximise its value.

Vet your Internet Presence - Do you have a website?  Should you upgrade from non-trading to trading?  Do you have proper terms of use, privacy policy and terms and conditions for on-line sales?  Do you need to comply with the Distance Selling Regulations?  The internet is resurgent again and this is the time to be asking yourself these sorts of questions.

Check that you are Data Protection Compliant  - Nearly all businesses “process” personal data.  The Information Commissioner’s website (www.ico.gov.uk) has an on-line registration form as well as a question and answer section to check whether registration is necessary.  It also provides guidance on what businesses must do to comply with the Data Protection Act 1998.

Review your Shareholders’/Partnership/Members’ Agreement - These relate to companies, partnerships and limited liability partnerships respectively. They regulate the relationship between the owners of the business and give a roadmap of what happens if certain events occur e.g. someone leaves the business. Owners come and go and their role within a business changes over time. You should consider whether the document now reflects the parties’ relationship. If not, update it as necessary.