Business Laws Entrepreneurs Need to Know About
Starting a business is about more than just coming up with a killer idea and then setting up a shop. There are numerous details that many business owners need to be sure to cover before launching their endeavor. Among those details without question are business laws. These are the rules and regulations that businesses must follow to remain in compliance and therefore avoid any penalties or fines. Ensuring that you know which business laws are relevant to your company is imperative. In this article, we review some of the more consequential business laws that most entrepreneurs will need to be aware of before launching their new business.
Business licenses
Many businesses will require a license to comply when operating. Determining whether or not your particular business requires a license is fairly easy. You should check with both your state and local governing bodies; they can give you insight into what exactly you need. In some instances, you might also require a federal license. For example, if you sell firearms or have an aviation-based business, you may be required to get licensed at the federal level as well.
Federal Equal Employment Opportunity
This represents a set of laws that prevent businesses from discriminating because of race, color, sex, or religion, among other factors. These laws also go into issues of equal pay as well as protecting those who have disabilities.
Family and Medical Leave Act
If one of your employees is grappling with a medical condition or they have a family member who is suffering from a medical condition, under law an employer must allow for leave. It is important to educate yourself regarding what you are required to do as an employer in terms of how much time off they can receive in conjunction with compensation requirements.
Occupational Safety and Health Act
Ensuring that the workplace is safe for all employees is highly important and is covered under certain laws as set forth by OSHA. You want to comply as there can be stiff fines attached to noncompliance.
Workers’ compensation
In most states, an employer will be required to have worker’s comp. This is essentially an insurance policy that covers employees should they get hurt on the job.
Truth in Advertising and Marketing
This particular law is pretty straightforward. As the name suggests, you have to make sure that all of your marketing and advertising materials are truthful. You cannot mislead the public about your company and/or products and services. And if you do make claims in an ad, be sure that you always can back those claims up lest you violate this law.
CAN-SPAM Act
This law applies to email. As this is a lesser-known law, many business owners are sometimes in violation of this act without being aware. The CAN-SPAM Act says that you cannot have deceptive headlines and you must always give email recipients a means of opting out of your email subscription list.
Telemarking Sales Law
The FTC has put out rules about what you can and cannot do when it comes to selling via the phone or online as well. If you do sell a product, that product needs to be shipped within 30 days of the sale. If for some reason an order cannot ultimately be fulfilled by you, you have to issue a refund to the customer. This law also contains language regarding the “do not call registry.”
Sales Tax
If you own a storefront business, you would charge sales tax by state laws. If you sell online, however, things are a bit different. If you do have a physical location, according to the FTC, you have to collect sales tax heeding the laws of your state. You want to check with both your state and the FTC regarding their rules on sales tax and selling online given your location.
Data security regulations
If given your business type you need to collect personal and/or sensitive information on customers, the FTC provides a guide for helping you to have a secure system in place for collecting and storing such information. Keep in mind, you should only be collecting that info which you need and nothing extraneous. And you always want to keep the data under lock and key.
Health Care Acts
Healthcare laws can and do impact most US businesses. Keeping up to date on the various healthcare policies in effect can help you stay compliant. There will be some health care acts that do affect every business owner regardless of how large or small the organization is.
Intellectual Property Laws
There are several ways to protect your company’s intellectual property. From patents to trademarks, you want to make sure that no one can steal your ideas, logos, and other such assets. You will want to research materials available via the US Patent and Trademark Office, as they can guide you through the process. Copyrights are going to be important for things such as musical pieces and books. While with a logo for example you can get a trademark.
Bankruptcy
If your business does fall into financial turmoil often the only way out is through bankruptcy. That said, there are numerous bankruptcy laws in place both to protect the system itself and also to help those businesses navigate the bankruptcy process more effectively.
If you are starting a new business, you most definitely want to be on top of the laws are that pertain to your company. As the saying goes, it is far better to be safe than sorry — as sorry can often come with a steep price tag by way of fines.
