At a Glance
Online Legal Services:
LegalZoom, RocketLawyer, and UpCounsel are popular online platforms that connect small businesses with attorneys. These services are cost-effective and offer a range of legal solutions, including templates and checklists to help with common legal tasks, such as drafting legal documents and reviewing contracts. Some online legal services even offer unlimited consultations with lawyers.
Small Business Legal Plans:
Companies like LegalShield and Rocket Lawyer offer subscription-based legal plans designed specifically for small businesses. For a monthly fee, these plans provide access to a network of attorneys who can offer legal advice and representation, as well as discounts on legal services such as document drafting and contract review.
State Bar Association Referral Services:
Many state bar associations operate lawyer referral services to assist individuals and businesses in finding qualified attorneys. These referral services can help small businesses connect with attorneys who have expertise in the specific legal areas relevant to their needs, and some bar associations also offer free or low-cost consultations with attorneys.
SCORE (Service Corps of Retired Executives):
SCORE is a nonprofit organization that offers free business counseling and mentoring services to small businesses and entrepreneurs. Some of the retired executives who volunteer with SCORE are experienced lawyers, accountants, and financial advisors. They can provide valuable legal, financial, and business advice and guidance on various business-related legal matters, such as intellectual property, contracts, compliance issues, and financial planning.
Introduction
Starting a small business is quite a daunting feat in a number of ways. It requires a lot of risk-taking. It puts substantial financial investments on the line. On top of that, one has to be a true leader and able to deal with all lines of employees.
From here, it makes sense that dealing with the legal matters surrounding the establishment of small businesses can prove to be quite tricky.
It makes sense then, that many small business owners opt for hiring professional lawyers. A small business lawyer could clarify what is legal or not, but could also review business contracts, and scrutinize HR, among other things.
Yet, such lawyers do come at a price, to put it delicately.
Of course, if you have quite a high starting budget, this wouldn’t be a problem. In case you’re looking for a more affordable way to get legal counseling, though, check out our list of 5 potential solutions!
Courses and Workshops
Firstly, you could look for a legal course meant for young entrepreneurs and business people. The main aim of such courses is precisely to initiate inexperienced business owners into the basic legal matters of small businesses.
Quite a few of them are actually free, but even those that are paid are on the relatively cheaper side. Something like Coursera’s Business Innovations via Patent or Alison’s Fundamentals of Business Law can quickly and easily acquaint you with the basic ins and outs while being free of charge!
Similarly, many public and/or nonprofit organizations can organize free workshops that you could visit. Some of these workshops, like the courses, will teach you the said basics, while others will put you in touch with young attorneys, who’ll offer their services for free!
Some law schools offer the services of recent law graduates for free, as part of internships advertised during fairs! Keep track of such events, and make the best use of them!
Finally, free legal aid clinics offer legal help to young business people and entrepreneurs in need. If you find yourself in a pinch, you may want to contact them, as they’ll probably be acquainted with the issues you are experiencing.
Online Research
Another option is for you to research the legal matters that interest you online. Check any records for small business laws that apply to your state, or, if you have a particular problem, search for specific solutions.
You could go through small business forums, where you could read similar experiences to your own, and see if some of the offered solutions are applicable to your case as well.
If what you’re interested in are preventative measures against potentially fraudulent partners and business deals, you might want to research such essential contract fundamentals as “Meeting of Minds”, for example.
Read all you can about the differences between written and oral contracts (yes, oral contracts are legal!), about the binding aspect of business contracts, and consider if maybe founding a trust as a legal protector of your business would be a good option in your case.
Thanks to the internet, the world is yours to explore, so do your best, and research thoroughly!
Consult Other Business People
A third option, which at first glance may seem simple, but is actually incredibly useful, is to consult other business minds in your wider circle.
Find somebody reliable, who’s been in at least a similar position to the one you’re in at the moment, and ask them about all company legalities you need to keep in mind at the start – and during the development.
First-hand experiences are always priceless, so you may find out about certain legal details peculiar to your country, state, or area, which could affect your business, while also not being that easily available online.
Online Legal Services
Alternatively, if you’re not looking for the immediate solution to a particular problem, but for a more long-term legal service that would still be cheaper than a professional lawyer, you might want to check out some online services!
New companies may benefit most from a service like Incfile, whose starting price is $99 per month, whereas small businesses looking for the most affordable options could opt for LegalShield, for example, the starting price of which is $39 per month.
Others, like RocketLawyer, Nolo, and many, many more, also offer a huge number of legal services at an acceptable price, guaranteeing that your small business will evade any legal pitfalls that it may encounter during its period of growth!
All of these online legal services are exceptionally experienced, so they’ll be the perfect fit for most small businesses!
Yet, sometimes, even this isn’t enough…
Consult a Professional Lawyer
There are certain legal situations where, regardless of which legal string you want to pull, the safest option is to go about it with a professional lawyer. Obtaining a business loan, a business license, or an EIN, for instance, are such occasions.
Now, before you start panicking about all the expenses which this could bring, consider looking for lawyers who offer their services pro bono, or have mandatory hours of free consultations, during which you could inquire about your issues for free.
Finally, if you have to rely on paid legal services, you may want to look for lawyers who work according to a contingency fee structure. In other words, you’ll pay for their services if, and only if, they manage to win the case for you.
This would be a rather safe scenario in particular legal situations, regardless of the cost.
It’s up to you to find the most optimal solution.
Small Businesses, You’ve Been Lawyered
All things considered, all small businesses would have to properly consider ways to get good legal counseling – both for particular issues and overall.
Whether you go for a professional lawyer or end up cutting some corners by going for some of the cheaper alternative options, you should always thoroughly evaluate both the situation at hand, as well as the broader picture.
Starting a small business is hard enough in itself, so make your life easier by going for the most convenient legal counseling option.
