Like it or not, if you’re looking to start a business, at some point or another you’ve got to start thinking about legal bits and pieces. Yes - the red tape. Boring? Daunting? Whatever your thoughts are, it really needn’t be as bad as you think. From the off there are some basic things that have to be considered, such as :

• What type of legal structure will your business have?
• Are you going it alone are are you in a partnership?
• Do you need to register a company?
• How can you actually go about doing that?

And of course once you’ve figured all that out, then there’s the whole matter of protecting what you’ve got. Yes, the rather fancifully named Intellectual Property...Copyrights, trademarks, patents and the like.

• Do you need to protect your designs, brand, photos or creations?

In short, yes you do

• but how and where can you do this?

Then there’s the rules. Whether you are setting up a sandwich shop or an online retail platform there are rules and regulations that you’ve got to adhere to.

• Are there local government regulations?
• Are there national or even international rules that apply?

We’ll try our best to help you get to grips with all this stuff, pointing you in the right direction of the people and the places that can help you do the legal equivalent of dotting those i’s and crossing those t’s.

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