Basic Rules for
Protecting a Business
Don’t know where to start?
Here are some basic guidelines to follow when looking to protect your small business.
01
Always Protect the Costs-to-Stay-Open-for-Business first
The costs to stay open for business are the 'fixed overhead costs' and are often contractual in nature. Make sure you have 12 months of fixed-cost funding on hand, just in case, so you can have a business to come back to after you recover from an unexpected sickness or accident, or so you can have an active business to sell as an ongoing concern if you have not yet recovered after 12 months. Insuring the Fixed Overhead Costs reduces the risk to a small business.
02
Always Protect the Key Revenue Maker
The biggest risk to a small business is usually its overreliance on its Owner. Whether the Business Owner, a Specialist Expert or a Key Person, most businesses derive the bulk of their revenue from a few key individuals.
Insuring the Key Person to the business protects a business from the financial dips that can occur if there's an unexpected loss of an owner, manager, partner, or skilled employee through sickness, injury or even death.
03
Always Protect the Business Debts
Businesses use debt to start-up or to grow. Whether these funds are supplied by the owner (Directors Loan Account) an external funder (using 1st mortgage security over property assets) or investors (usually a combination of mortgages and Director Personal Guarantees), nothing stops a business like an unexpected and immediate call-up of debts, well before they're expected to be repaid. Nothing stresses a business and its suppliers as having difficulty meeting its loan and debt obligations. Insuring the Business Debts & Liabilities from sickness, accident, or even death of the Owner, Business Partner or Key Person reduces the risk to a small business.
04
Always Protect the Business Ownership
Owning a business in Partnership with another means all the Partners need to protect their portion (equity investment) in the business to make sure the future control of the business stays with them. A forced change in ownership, due to one or more of the partners unexpectedly suffering a motor vehicle accident, ill health, or even death and then selling their shares, could destabilise the business ownership and risk its future. Protecting business ownership with a Partnership Agreement, Company Powers of Attorney and Insuring the Business Ownership, help reduce the risk to a small business.
05
Find a Risk Adviser specialising in working with Small Business Owners and their Families
Protecting yourself and your family from the risk of running a business is key to business and family harmony (and peace of mind). This is because small businesses and the families that support them have different risks, liabilities, and time constraints than average employee-based families. The team at Sapience Financial specialise in working with small business owners and their families, Sole Traders, Partnerships and Multi-owner business, and their Companies to help them protect themselves from their business.
Key Legal Documents
Get Key Legal Documents
Preparing for the unknowing becomes a little more complicated in modern life and business.
Our electronic lives are increasingly more interconnected with others, and our personal and business lives (and assets) have become similarly intertwined too.
Hasty or uninformed decisions made today, without consideration for tomorrow, can be caught up in many unexpected problems; so it makes sense to think about what we can do today, to make sure our plans, gifts, and generosity, last well past tomorrow and avoid the common traps and misunderstandings of modern life (and its lawyers).
- Our experience has been most people get stuck not knowing what their options are and who they can turn to for professional guidance.
- Additionally, in our increasingly litigation-focused world - from The Family Law Court to Personal Injury Lawyers - documenting your agreements has never become such an important part of modern life.
We'd love to help you with that so all the Key Legal Documents you read about here, are all available for purchase through the Sapience Customer Portal from our partner law firm.
Putting off important decisions creates low-level anxiety
- In life, research shows blended (and blending) families delay and put off getting their Estate Planning and Wills sorted the most (possibly due to the complexity of their personal situation.)
- In business, Partnerships – joint business ventures by businesses – usually put off creating their Partnership Agreement and run the catastrophic risks of running an undocumented partnership. This is because general partnerships have unlimited liability – each partner is jointly liable for the actions (or inactions) of the other as well as themselves.
Below is a list of some of the key legal documents every person and business owner needs to have in place, in addition to their personal Modern Estate Planning.
Key Legal Documents
Below are the most popular legal documents our clients use:
For Individuals & Families
- Loan to Parents Agreement
- Family Loan Agreements
- Deed of Gift
- Mutual Wills
- Contractual Will Agreement – (for 2nd marriages with children)
For Business Owners
- Company Power Of Attorney
- Mutual Non-Disclosure Agreements
- Partnership Agreements
- Unit Holders Agreements
- SMSF Investment Strategy – (ATO audit friendly)
We'd love to help you get your Key Legal Documents in place.
The Difference between Estate Planning documents & Key Legal documents
There are two main types of legal document we'll all need during our personal lives, family lives, and even business lives.
- Structure documents – often called Estate Planning documents – that clearly outline our own important life decisions – like appointing a Power of Attorney, nominating Legal Guardians for dependent children, and creating Wills.
- Agreement documents – often called Key Legal documents – that clearly outline agreements and reasons that usually have longer term consequences for others - like documenting family loans, changes in blended family relationships and specific decisions, obligations, and responsibilities.
All these documents are available and purchased through our Sapience Secure Customer Portal with the assistance of your financial adviser.
Why do we provide these Key Legal Documents?
Up until now, getting your key legal documents in place as well as your personal risk insurances and estate planning, has been a fractured and unnecessarily difficult process, with many people simply putting off completing these important decisions, to a future easier time that never actually arrives.
Many people report they often end up living with a low level of anxiety until it's finally sorted.
Let us help you get these documents sorted
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Sapience believes your financial adviser is uniquely placed to understand your personal situation over time, more than a one-time chat with a solicitor creating a legal document for you.
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Our Modern Estate Planning service provides a premium complete solution for busy people who need to get their modern estate planning and key business documents in place without, having to go to a physical solicitors' office.
Pro Tip: Be careful about purchasing legal documents from online marketing firms masquerading as law firms, as the law firms who sold the document template to the marketer are not responsible for the document and for keeping them up to date - the same way a Post Office Will Kit is a document that has no legal backing. caveat emptor!
How can we help?
Learn more about the Key Legal documents of life and business and whether your future would look more stable and predictable with them in place.
Contact us for a confidential chat about your needs.
Related: Types of Key Legal Documents we work with
Each legal document creates certainty and clarity for a specific legal decision.
