Summary

In today’s podcast, lawyer George Paramananthan joins me to talk about ways of avoiding expensive mistakes.  George has a background as a corporate lawyer in large global corporations.  His drive was always about helping people, which led to him starting ParamCo to help small businesses and founders with the legal side of business.

George has a passion for art but has always found ways to incorporate it into his life through his work over the years. 

From a legal perspective the first question to ask when starting a business is whether your Business will be a Profit or Not For Profit business. George goes on to define the difference between the two. 

The next step is to make a decision as to whether the person wants to be a Sole Trader or Company also known as a Pty Ltd. As a Sole Trader it’s your name that you need to register but as a company it’s a separate entity with Pty Ltd. George goes into the detail about the difference, the advantages, disadvantages and the risks involved. 

Trudy and George go on to talk about – 

1. Foundation phase for business – Depending on what your business is, it still requires legal documents such as terms and conditions, and supplier and service agreements and compliance documents, such as your privacy policy, but they all need to be customised to your business, 
2. Risk Profile – The importance of Insurance and the different types of Insurances you need to think about for your small business
3. The different types of policies required – For service based businesses, there are privacy, website and even social media policies 
4. How to be vigilant with your documentation – Find out and know what’s supposed to be included so that as a small business owner you are prepared in the event something goes wrong and you need proof ….
5. What to look out for when your business is growing – Using a client’s contract and what to look out for in commercial terms (pricing/payment terms), practical operations obligations including insurances (staff need to go through training – who’s going to pay for that?) and Legal matters – Termination, software services and more. 

The transcript for this episode can be found here.

Resources 

 LinkedIn  

George's Email – [email protected]

Today's Guests

George Paramananthan  

George is a multifaceted senior executive with extensive experience in using his legal expertise and  familiarity advising on commercial, operational and strategic matters to help businesses identify, design and achieve successful outcomes. George has worked across several industries and across several overseas jurisdictions, bringing his commercial acumen and ethical business advice to assist commercial enterprises grow and achieve operational efficiencies.

A keen interest is on organisations who are striving to affect positive change. George wants to support businesses who are redefining their success models to actively account for their impact on people, communities, economies and the environment. George passionately believes in the objectives of for-purpose organisations and wants to support their vision to change perceptions, practices and priorities.