What should you consider and what sort
of agreements should you have in place if
you’re going into business with a partner
(including your best friend or a family
member)? For instance, after a number of
years your business partner may decide
that he wants to spend more time with his
young children and no longer wants to work
as many hours in the business as you do.
How would you address that? Wouldn’t it
be better to address potential future issues
such as this when you first go into business
with your partner, rather than having to deal
with the awkwardness later on?
You’ve built up a successful business,
but you have been sued and are at risk of
losing your house. How did that happen?
You plan on paying your spouse a salary,
even though he is a stay-at-home parent,
because one of your friends advised you that
it would save you tax. Is there a structure
that will allow you to legally do so?
Your brand
Your mate told you that all you need to do
to start your business is register a business
name or incorporate a company. This is partly
correct, but registering a business name (or
company) alone gives you absolutely no
proprietary interest or exclusive rights to
that name.
You’ve also spent a lot of time and money
on signage, advertising, setting up your
website, facebook Page and other social
media and marketing promotions. People
are starting to recognise and know your
business by its name, logo and slogans. Then
you receive a letter from a firm of solicitors
advising that the use of your name and logo
is infringing the rights of its client and you
have seven days to cease using your name
and logo. They are also demanding that you
pay damages.
Alternatively, you propose to expand
into another State, but find out that another
fitness business there is already using your
name. Disaster! How do you protect against
these things happening to your business?
Premises and lease
You’ve found the perfect premises in terms
of location, size and layout. You sign a lease
and then find out you can’t operate 24/7 or
do the other things you wanted to do to the
premises. Or worse yet, you can’t operate
your business at all. Can you just give
the keys back? What are your rights and
obligations at the beginning, during and end
of the lease?
Permits and authorities
What would happen if a local council
officer interrupted one of your regular high
attendance sessions and told you that you
weren’t authorised to do what you were
doing and had to stop? Do you have all the
required permits and authorities to operate
your business?
Membership agreements
They’re basically all the same aren’t they?
So you base yours on a form used by a well
known fitness chain. After all, it must be OK
if they’re using it – isn’t it?
The Consumer Affairs departments
in each State, as well as the Australian
Competition and Consumer Commission,
have issued guides or circulars about
membership agreements, including terms
they consider to be in breach of the law.
Does your agreement comply?
Employees/Contractors
It doesn’t matter what you call them because
you have the same rights and obligations
with both, other than the manner in which
you pay them – right?
Website hosting
You have a disagreement with – and stop
paying – the company that hosts and
controls your website, and the next morning
they shut it down. Unfortunately, you don’t
have access to the necessary licences and
code to move it to another host. What do
you do now, and how do you protect against
your website being held to ransom?
Standard form agreements
All equipment, finance/supply agreements,
facility management systems, direct
debit, personal guarantees and franchise
agreements are ‘standard’ aren’t they? So
there’s nothing to be concerned about?
Insurance
You’ve taken out insurance, but one of
your trainers (who has no qualifications
in massage) injures a client while giving
him a massage as part of the sessi