All Posts By

Hitch

Contractors vs. Employees – Navigating the Minefield

By | Business Structures, Directors, Intellectual Property, Miscellaneous, Professional Services, Start-Ups | No Comments

With the rise of Uber and the sharing economy the status of workers has never been more relevant. We see a major push from businesses toward a flexible contractor based workforce. Whilst we share many of the commercial views that drive this push (e.g. flexible overheads, encouraging workforce participation and providing on-demand services), business owners must exercise caution not to incorrectly characterise a worker as a contractor when in fact they are an employee.

Read More

Restraint of Trade Realities

By | Buying and Selling, Directors, Dispute Resolution, Intellectual Property | No Comments

Recently, Solomon Lew’s Just Group commenced action against departed CFO Nicole Peck. Just Group is seeking an injunction to prevent Ms Peck working for competitor, Cotton On, for a period of 24 months. Just Group is arguing that it is likely to suffer loss and damage as a result of the potential disclosure of confidential Ms Peck holds, to the Cotton On Group. Most likely, Just Group will be seeking to rely on some form of restraint of trade clause. Read More

Protecting your Brand

By | Intellectual Property, Start-Ups | No Comments

Branding is a task that’s found at the top of every new business owner’s ‘to-do list’. A well-crafted name/brand is one of the most important tools in the marketing toolkit. It’s usually the case that protecting your brand is found much further down your ‘to-do’ list, or not on the list at all. Read More

The Fine Print

By | Creditor and Debtor Management, Miscellaneous, Start-Ups | No Comments

As a supplier of goods and services your Terms and Conditions (T&Cs) govern your relationship with your customer. Absent a clear set of T&Cs, if something goes wrong, you’re reliant on arguments of ‘he said, she said’ to prove your position. By putting in place clear terms and conditions you will achieve certainty as to your customers’ expectations. In addition, if you’re supplying on credit (i.e. allowing time to pay), then your terms and conditions will assert your right to be paid on time. Read More

Shameful Scam or Smart Structuring

By | Asset Protection, Business Structures, Miscellaneous, Start-Ups | No Comments

Drop names like Putin and al-Assad in the same sentence and you’re sure to get a reaction regardless of the subject matter. This week we’ve seen Iceland’s Prime Minister resign and the Australian Taxation Office is reportedly investigating 800 high net-worth individuals as a result of the leaked ‘Panama Papers’. In their simplest form, the ‘Panama Papers’ are client files from a law firm who set-up business/wealth structures for wealthy and high profile clients. Read More

Make Yourself Redundant

By | Directors, Miscellaneous, Start-Ups | No Comments

Treat your talent pool so well that your business can run without you on a day-to-day basis!

Key Person Dependency (KPD) is the notion of a business  being reliant upon few key people. Commonly entrepreneurs and founders of successful businesses have had to do a huge amount of heavy lifting themselves to get the business off the ground…hats off to them for doing that! The problem is that those same successful people have trouble letting go of the control panel, resulting in KPD. Read More