Menlo Park Business Attorney – Protect Your Business in a Tight Economy

Businesses often want to “cut” things when times are bad . . . prices, employees, space.  There are right and wrong ways to do this.

When you cut your prices, what do you end up doing? You cut quality to make up the difference. When you compromise the quality of your work, it inevitably results in callbacks or, worse yet, lawyers.  Make sure you can keep the same quality of work even with lower prices.

When you cut employees, you tend to cut the ones that cost you the most.  Beware!  You don’t want to run into charges of discrimination.  There is a right way and a wrong way to terminate employees.  Make sure you follow a proper course to do so.

In a tight economy some customers/clients try to take advantages of businesses to get more for their dollar.  These are people you would never deal with in a good economy.  Why are you considering taking them on as a client now?  Why? Because you are hurting for work.  Be careful.  The problem client is a nightmare in any economy and should be avoided.

When you make the above mistakes, the only one making money is the lawyer.

To make it through tough economic times in one piece, try the following:

1. Work with your clients to give them the most for their money without compromising quality.
2. Work with your employees so that everyone takes a little less with the long-term goal of weathering the storm together to come out in the end stronger. Having less money for a little while is better than having no money immediately.
3. Never, never, never take on a client for whom you would not work in good times. You are better off sitting at home watching TV than taking on a problem client that in the long run will end up costing you money.
4. Restructure your payment schedules so that you get paid more frequently. If you are having economic problems, your client might be having them as well. Don’t let your client owe you more money than you can afford to walk away from.
5. Monitor and work with your suppliers, vendors, and independent contractors.  Make sure they are financially strong and won’t be sacrificing the work they are doing for you to make ends meet.

Bad times do not last forever. Be creative in working through them. Don’t become another statistic — a failed business.

If you need help to do this, call our office for assistance.