When you’re running a business, a lot of care has to be taken to ensure that you’re not overlooking any expenses that should already be on the books. However, what about the expenses that you have yet to accrue? Here, we’re going to look at some that are a lot more avoidable if you take the time to prepare for them, and how, exactly, you can do that.
Legal costs
Any legal action against your business is going to be prohibitively expensive. Lawyers are expensive, that much should be clear from the get-go, but it’s a lot more expensive to have to actively pay them to represent you in a court of law than it is to pay for their advice and services ahead of time. Work with a business lawyer to ensure that your business is up to code and that you are aware of what common legal snafus someone in your industry could fall into, without the right advice.
Accidents and injuries
Accidents and injuries in the workplace are expensive in a wide variety of ways. Covering your employees through worker’s compensation is mandatory. What’s more, you might lose money from the productivity cost of having an employee who isn’t able to make it to their job. Doing what you can to secure your workplace, from implementing commercial railings in areas where they might be liable to fall or step into potentially dangerous territory, to ensuring that your floors are stable and walkways well lit, can help you prevent a lot of accidents. It is almost always less expensive to get the right safety provisions in place than to pay out that worker’s comp.
Pay disputes
Although certainly legal in nature, pay disputes tend to be a lot more costly to deal with. If you are having a hard time paying your employees what they expect, on time, then you should implement a payroll system that can do it for you. If you fail to pay employees what they have earned, then you can end up paying a lot more than just the earnings owed. Keep your figures straight and your employees happy by systematizing your payroll.
Your tax burden
You shouldn’t try to avoid paying any tax, that much should be a given. In most cases, it’s not possible and attempting to do so could trigger an audit from the taxman. What you can do, however, is take the time to ensure that you’re not overlooking tax deductions that you could be making. The best advice is to work with an accountant who can help you spot those deductions, and balance your tax return in a way that you’re taking advantage of the breaks available to you as best as possible while avoiding undue attention.
With the tips above, you can make sure that you’re doing the work to stop some of your expenses from growing too unwieldy. You can’t perfectly prevent any of them, but you can invest some time and money now to prevent yourself from having to pay out a lot more in the near future.
P.S. This post contains affiliate links.
