Avoid These Financial Risks to Your Office

When people imagine the setting up of a new business, they imagine a lot of financial risks. But they’re often thinking about the sort of risks that come with the investment of capital into the business. The fact is that you also need to consider the increasing risks that come with the further development of your business. If you’ve advanced your business enough that you can now move from remote work in your home to an office with employees, then you’re going to have a bunch of new financial risks to worry about. Here are the common ones you need to look out for.

Overspending

One of the most common financial risks for business owners looking to move to a new office? Overspending. It’s easier to do than you think. From buying a bigger office than you really need (either because you think you’ll hire more people than you realistically will, or because you really like the space) to buying more computers and other tech than you’ll actually use, the opportunities for overspending are many. Be realistic about what you need from your office. While you shouldn’t skimp so much that your work becomes affected and your employees become dissatisfied, you do need to be careful.

Theft and damage

A lot of people think about insurance as an unnecessary expense. This is certainly rife in the personal sphere, but it’s more common than you might think in the business world, too. Sure, you might make you get liability insurance to help protect you from lawsuits (more about that in a second), but what about insurance against the theft of or damage to your property? Even if you’ve invested wisely in security measures, a lack of insurance may end up coming back to bite you.

Employee lawsuits

Liability insurance is essential for most business owners; it helps cover you financially if you’re found legally liable for injury, negligence, or malpractice. Still, it’s really much wiser to help ensure such a lawsuit doesn’t actually take place. If you neglect the health and safety of your employees, then something will eventually go wrong - and you’ll have accident and injury lawyers on your back, trying to get compensation for their client - a.k.a. the employee that you wronged! Get liability insurance, but spare absolutely no expense to make sure that your employees are looked out for.

Contract errors

A business has to deal with contracts. There are employee contracts, freelancer contracts, contracts between you and other businesses, contracts between you and the customer… it can be a bit of a nightmare getting your head around it all. But get your head around those contracts you must, because not sticking to your word can result in fines and even lawsuits. (Yes, that sticky word again.) You have to make sure that these contracts (and this includes the terms of service on your website) are written in a way so as to ensure maximum clarity. You don’t want there to be leeway that allows other parties to take financial advantage of you - another risk in this area that few people seem to talk about.