OutSec, the UK’s leading online transcription company, speaks with Will Taborn of Taborns, who kindly gives his advice to businesses, as we head into Christmas and the New Year.
As the festive season kicks into life, our thoughts will soon turn to a New Year of optimism after what has been yet another difficult year for businesses globally.
The importance of a business-to-business contract review from both the supplier and the buyer side cannot be overstated. Shareholders’ Agreements, Employment Contracts, and Commercial Contracts of all types – in fact, anything you use to run your business that involves a contract of some type – form the foundation and bedrock from which you operate your business.
The pot at the end of the Rainbow. Don’t Forget the Journey!
The context these contracts give, supply you with the understanding of what direction your business is going. For example, a contract detailing a service you supply someone will be different to something outlining a joint venture (businesses kept separate versus a joining of some type).
This then can direct your marketing and a consumer understanding of what you do. Equally, it also works in the reverse; your business profile gives a steer as to how a contract should be constructed.
Either way, they are vital and often overlooked in favour of the bigger prize of business and financial growth.
The Future
Whether you are building up your business to sell, or whether it is a lifestyle business; you want it to be successful.
This is where there can be a real disparity in the business direction and growth, against what your current contracts reflect. This can cause issues and here are just two basic examples:
- Employment Law regularly changes, so your contracts as an employee and/or employer should be reviewed. If you have people now working from home, do you fall foul of GDPR regulations?
- Commercial and Supplier Agreements – if your business has grown or changed direction from what it was at the outset are these fit for use or do they leave you exposed financially and legally?
Example
More than ever, we are in an ever-changing world. As an example, Taborns recently advised a company with a £50 million turnover (the number is largely a bystander, though). The owner wanted to:
- Take on £2 million of investment;
- Remove a number of shareholders.
When we asked where the Shareholders’ Agreement was, he said he didn’t have one; he only had a basic Articles of Association.
The difference is that a Shareholders Agreement is a formal agreement between you and the shareholders about the running of the company. Articles of Association, of course, set out the administrative and company law elements you are bound by. The Shareholders Agreement can contain whatever you wish it to contain; so gives you options.
So, not having one in place causes potential problems if you want to take on investment or make changes, as there is no advisory route from which you can refer.
The result of this particular matter was that the cost to the business was significant and the investment delay was huge. The owner had to have a Shareholder Agreement drafted, the shareholders all had to agree and then he had to make the changes. All very convoluted and costly. If this had been constructed at the outset, when the business was small, it would have cost a lot less and taken less time.
Gift your Business an Early Christmas Present – Some Advice from Taborns
So, the early Christmas present from us at Taborns is to give you some advice:
- Make sure you have the right contracts in place from the outset for your business.
- Regularly review them (every 12 to 18 months is a fair period). You can easily put these in the draw and forget about them. So dig them out!
- Find an expert to review them in the language you understand. This will ensure you are covered legally and that agreements constantly change, and reflect, where your business is at, at that particular time.
Taborns are unique in this respect – bridging the gap between the business and legal world. We are a business like you, but just happen to be in the business of law.
For businesses we are able to offer a Company Welfare Check. This is a cost-effective, fixed price, first-pass review of your contracts, undertaken by an expert in the field; so that your options are covered.
Finally, if you currently have in-house typists or indeed, type documents yourself, why not think of switching to OutSec in order to achieve efficiency and costs savings for your business? Who doesn’t like to save money?
About Taborns
Taborns is a legal services firm. It recognises that businesses and professional service providers (such as law firms and accountants) require a more affordable way of accessing legal services.
Taborns are dedicated to modernising and reshaping the conventional legal services practice. It aims to boost efficiency, productivity, and effectiveness. To ensure a joined-up approach across services. Successful businesses in any industry outsource services to other companies who have core service offerings. This is what we seek to do at Taborns to help businesses grow and operate more efficiently.
Contact Details
To find out more about Taborns and the services they offer please contact Will on 020 3745 1050. Or email him at will@taborns.com to arrange a no-obligation and confidential chat.
About OutSec
OutSec is the UK’s leading online transcription company whose business has grown substantially since 2002. We are one of the most successful transcription companies in the United Kingdom.
OutSec provides secure outsourced transcription services to the medical, legal, property and surveying, universities, media and interviews, advisory boards, conferences & seminars, inventories, financial, corporate, HR, recruitment and Executive Search sectors.
How OutSec Can Help Your Business be More Productive!
Transcription brings with it 30%-40% Efficiency Savings
Well, the simple fact is that we can all speak considerably faster than we can physically type:
“The average person types between 38 and 40 words per minute”.
A “good rate of speech ranges between 140 -160 words per minute.”
In other words, dictation is up to four times faster than we can type. Therefore, simply dictating a document is more cost-efficient, giving you more time to dedicate your efforts elsewhere in your business.
Therefore why not add OutSec as a business continuity option for your business? Accounts are free, you pay on a per-minute basis (rounded to the nearest minute) on a pay-as-you-go basis, with no contracts or minimum spend. What do you have to lose when outsourcing your transcription needs? Why not open an account today!
