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Top tips to protect your business

Disputes often arise between an employee and employers in relation to working terms and conditions, behaviour of staff and a host of other issues. Employees may have legitimate claims against their employers leading employers to seek an effective waiver of those claims.

Businesses spend a great deal of time and energy looking, selecting and training the right people for their business going through rigorous processes to ensure they have people in their business who are the right fit.

The Chancellor, George Osborne, announced proposals for a new type of employee ownership arrangement. The suggestion was that employees would give up some of their statutory employment rights (see below for more details), in particular the right to claim unfair dismissal and the right to a statutory redundancy payment, in exchange for shares in their employing company as a way to provide more flexibility to employers to secure the right staff.

Recently, a band came to see me for the first time about a management agreement. They walked into the meeting with their infectious up-beat and optimistic attitude. And why not? They are making good music, playing more and more gigs and are beginning to be recognised in the street (usually by screaming young females).

The importance of cash flow is a cold hard fact which concerns all business people . Yet despite the well known mantra that “cash is king” many businesses suffer serious, and often fatal consequences from allowing bad debts to accrue and failing to take action to recover cash that is sat on their balance sheet as debt.

Once the term of a lease has expired the situation can become complicated where a tenant remains in occupation. The complexity will depend on whether the lease is a “protected lease” under the renewal provisions of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954.

When two people decide to set up a company and are investing equally in terms of time, money and effort, they frequently do so by each holding 50% of the shares in that company and both being directors. There are many such quasi-partnership companies in existence. However, the equal shareholding structure does have the obvious drawback that in the event of a dispute between the two shareholders, the company will be unable to operate due to deadlock.

Charitable Incorporated Organisations (CIO) are a brand new type of legal entity, designed specifically for non-profit organisations. It has filled the hole that for the last 400 years has caused other legal structures, intended for contrasting purposes, to be used to help provide charities with a practical and effective incorporated vehicle.

Absences from work can be very disruptive to a business. Persistent staff absences can lead to difficult situations and often employers cast doubt over the genuineness of frequent, short term absences.