Moe Odele is an experienced international finance and technology attorney. She also runs an educational platform for Start-ups and SME’s called Scale My Hustle.
We had the pleasure of hosting Moe as a guest speaker on our Grow My Business Webinar, and she shared tips on navigating through legal challenges as it pertains to SME’s and the pandemic.
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INSURANCE:
A couple of issues business are facing now can be covered by insurance. As a business owner, you need to insure different areas of your business. It always seems like an unnecessary expense at first but no one really ever predicts a pandemic until it’s right around the corner.
No one was prepared for this. Having your payrolls, inventory, logistics insured will help with cash flow during unforeseen circumstances.
CONTRACTS:
You need to pay attention to every detail of all contracts you sign or share to a third-party. Go through your contracts – Supplier contracts, consulting contracts, employee contracts, Lease contract etc. with your business lawyer. Make sure it favours both parties. If an unplanned situation comes up like this pandemic, try and review your obligations with your lawyers and renegotiate the terms.
Not everyone is familiar with Force Majeure clause. This is a provision in a contract that excuses a party from an unforeseeable circumstance that prevents someone from fulfilling a contract. Every business should have the Force Majeure clause in their contracts.
FURLOUGHS:
A Furlough is an agreement with employees for a temporary leave due to special needs of the employer and it may be due to economic conditions or in society as a whole.
As a business owner, you might not want to lay-off staff but you can communicate the temporary leave without pay for a finite period. This will allow you to cut labour costs for a while. This can be mandatory or voluntary but you can verify this from your lawyers because it applies differently in various countries.
REGULATORY REQUIREMENTS:
As we all know, there are restrictions, licenses and laws applicable to your business which have been imposed by the government. Communication with the regulators is key to ensure you’ve met all regulatory requirements. You should also make sure you check for compliance requirements or adjustments, so you can be up-to-date with any new changes to avoid any fine.
Another great way to ensure that your business is legally safe is by using the Flutterwave Store – your customers can pay you through a secured and seamless platform and this ensures you don’t have to deal with debts.
Flutterwave Store is helping a lot of businesses #KeepTheLightsOn right now and you can get yours for FREE too. Click here to get yours.