What follows the foundation of a company? Obligations and practical instructions. By Elena Alk. Spyropoulou, Lawyer Founding a company is a complex and time consuming affair. Even when it’s founded, legal obligations of partners do not stop; on the contrary they just begin. Depending on the nature and the activity of a company its legal needs differentiate, but the first actions are common to all and are: 1. Keeping Books and Records. Firstly you must keep the right books (invoices, calendar, suppliers’ lists, etc) both for tax reasons and to make your everyday life easier. In any case it is better to work with or hire a capable accountant to take care of such obligations for you and your company. Your accountant will let you know for the best possible economical policy you can follow, for any action necessary to the Internal Revenue Service and will take care of your everyday accounting obligations. 2. Will you be in need of personnel? If yes, ask of your lawyer to provide you with the suitable job contracts for your company’s needs and the kind of personnel you employ. In any case you should prefer keeping your employees satisfied. We all know the difference between happy and smiling employees and to the ones that make us go away with their manner. That difference is not based on the character of the employee but on how well he feels about his workspace and the conditions of his job, even on the opinion he has for you, his employer. Ensure their position, paying the legitimate insurance contributions and give them motivation in order to work willingly and effectively. If you do not have the ability to reward your employees with high salaries, agree on what is legitimate, taking account of their family situation, their knowledge and experience, plus a bonus or percentage regarding on their efficiency. This stands as recognition of the qualifications of your employee, of her personal life and that you do not use her like an expendable. Percentages or bonuses are an important motivation and can increase her interest and diligence. Do you offer products or services? Fortify your brand name or trademark. It is a simple procedure and relatively short and will make you identifiable in the market. Choose the trademark or/and the brand name with which you want to link your activity and establish them in your transactions, so that with their appearance and only, the genre and the quality of your products/services will be known. For brand names responsible is the Chamber of Industry of your area and for trademarks the Ministry of Development, Direction of Commercial and Industrial Property. 4. Protect your products with distinct terms of use. Instead of having an a posteriori disagreement, make sure that from the buy/installation/offer of your product/service the consumer knows what he buys and under which terms. If you make products, that are in contact or/and linked to other data or products of your clients (e.g. software that is installed on the hard disk of the computer) make sure to accompany them with terms of use, to which the client must confirm in order to use or install your product. In them make clear what your customer is allowed and not to do e.g. one or two installations are allowed but not a third, it is forbidden to alter content/its further distribution/publication, etc. Terms of use allow you to illustrate your share of responsibility in case of damage. So it is preferable to exclude your responsibility on any damage caused by inappropriate use of the product. 5. Advertise: Promote your business through advertisement, making sure that what you advertise is what people get. Don’t get carried away with pompous phrases of other advertisements with impressively big and high-flown offers. False advertising is an offense and is punished in favor of the consumer; there are a lot of consumers’ organizations whose job is to receive and lodge complaints from unhappy consumers. 6. Do you trade with other businesses of your branch? Agree upon negotiations on a non disclosure agreement. All major companies, whose information is valuable and leakage of it would cause great damage, follow this practice. If you must search for collaboration or even if you are in the final procedure of making a contract but you are far from signing, make sure you secure the “secret recipes” of your company, until the final agreement is signed and the term for mutual trust is part of it. Of course depending on the kind of your company you have a sea of other legal obligations, which can be simple procedures when there is proper organization. LTD and SA par example; every change/amendment of their memorandum of association must be published, a procedure best undertaken by your lawyer, so that you ensure the correctness of the proceedings against all involved parties (IRS, Chamber of Commerce, and Prefecture). The procedure of decision making is different in the various kinds of companies. SA companies often need general meetings of shareholders and boards. In the market one can find printed and electronic forms of contracts and decisions of board or shareholders meetings. They are useful in the beginning until you get organized and see how the procedures work. Under no circumstances can they replace your legal advisor, who might be present in general meetings and boards of your company, will prepare the appropriate documents, and ensure the legitimacy of decisions and the right sequence of moves, as law provides in any case. It is important that in every company, and in any case in the big financial companies, every party does the job that he knows best. One man show companies even in our country are of no future. The most important move after founding your company is to employ the right personnel and associates. Sign the appropriate contracts with each one, and finally work with the help and advice of experts in any field of your company’s activity. Published at: Financial RAM