Small Business Owners - 3 Key Points To Consider While Hiring Attorneys In Your Business Team

When I ask Small Business owners what they would look for, when hiring Attorneys, I get one of the following answers:

I DON'T need an attorney at this time.

When I need an attorney, I will think about it.

Attorneys COST too much.

The process of hiring an attorney INTIMIDATES me.

As a Small Business owner I too can relate to this feeling. Now you have two options. The first option is to ignore the thought of hiring attorneys at all. Alternatively you can be AWARE and ask yourself-Why do I feel this way?

First of all you must consider hiring Attorneys PRO-ACTIVELY to PROTECT and GROW your business. This might sound like an expensive proposition for a Small Business owner. However NOT doing so will COST you much more. Secondly you must consider having attorneys in your business team as an INVESTMENT and not COST. Last but not least if you get familiar with using legal services, you will never be intimidated by the process of hiring attorneys.

Why you must consider hiring Attorneys pro-actively?

How many times have you had a great idea to expand your business, got excited and just implemented it anyway and ended up in a huge loss because of compliance issues? Instead, how would YOU have felt, if you had the ability to pick up a telephone and ask your attorney, if it is legal to implement your business idea before making the decision to expand? Do you agree that you would saved yourself from this huge loss? It is very beneficial for you to hire attorneys before even signing any document or contracts with your clients to KNOW YOUR RIGHTS, AVOID STRESS and FINANCIAL LOSS.

Why consider having attorneys in your business team as an investment and not cost?

There are two ways you can interpret the word "investment".

1. Contribution of something such as time, energy, or effort to an activity, project, or undertaking, in the expectation of a benefit.

2. An amount of money invested in something for the purpose of making a profit.

Your attorneys are contributing their time, energy and effort to, give YOU the greatest benefit of making YOU Stress free and empowered. Fees paid to attorneys for business purpose is generally tax deductible (Please check with your accountant). Hence your money invested is helping you to increase your profit.

How to avoid feeling intimidated by the process?

We can avoid being intimidated, if we are familiar with the process. You could pre-pay a certain amount of money to your attorneys and utilize their services as per a mutual agreement. This way you will have the ability to contact your attorneys when YOU WANT. You could consult with them before making a business related legal decision. God forbidden, when you get into legal problem, you will find it least intimidating to use their services, because you are very familiar with their method of operation.

Another option would be, when get into a legal problem, search for attorneys specialized in the related area. If you are satisfied, you can pay a certain amount of retainer fee and then hire an attorney. You have saved yourself from prepayment, but may have to put up with not being familiar using the attorney's services and feel intimidated.

It would be beneficial for YOU to make a decision on how you would like to pay and use the attorney's services, BEFORE hiring attorneys in your business team.

Action Exercises:

Here are two things you can consider doing:

Write down one costly mistake you made in your business without consulting an attorney, because you felt it would be expensive to hire an attorney or the process of hiring an attorney was intimidating.

How has your thinking changed now and what action would you take to avoid this situation in future?