New SBA.gov Guide Makes It Easier To Understand Laws and Regulations That Apply To Your Small Business

It doesn’t matter whether you’re a freelancer, an online business or operate a growing bricks and mortar company with multiple employees. In all cases, two things are certain: 1) You must pay business taxes (of course), and 2) you need to know a little bit about business law.

The problem is there are so many laws and regulations that impact small businesses, from ensuring the emails you send to your customers fall within marketing and advertising laws to trademarking your name to making sure you comply with labor laws.

So how do you find out which laws affect you and what you need to do to comply? Strapped for time and looking for quick answers, many of us simply turn to Google. But how do you know the information you are getting is up-to-date, accurate and specific to your situation?

These are all issues for small business owners and the U.S. Small Business Administration has made it a priority to help small business owners get through them. Besides offering a range of tools to help small business owners navigate business laws (such as this online tool that lets you find which licenses and permits your business needs), the SBA has recently re-launched many of its small business guides to provide quick access to essential information.

New Business Law and Regulations Guides from SBA

One area that has undergone a re-boot is the Business Law and Regulations section of the website.

The guide is particularly useful because it pulls together information from a variety of different government websites such as the Department of Labor, Federal Trade Commission, Environmental Protection Agency, Securities and Exchange Commission and others that may apply specifically to small businesses.

This saves you a lot of legwork and ensures the information is accurate and reliable!

Browse the new guides by topics such as employment and labor law (includes useful links to help you determine which labor laws apply to your business), workplace safety and health law, intellectual property law (covers everything you need to know about how to protect your business with trademarks, copyright and patents), environmental law, finance law (something to note if you engage in competitive bidding practices).

Hiring foreign workers and determining their eligibility to work gets a step-by-step overview of what you need to do to ensure you comply with the law. If you gather and retain customer and employee data, take a look at the consumer privacy law guide.

Manufacturers and marketers should take a look at the advertising and marketing law guide, which explains product labeling requirements and offers information for marketers on laws that impact email marketing, such as the CAN SPAM Act, and telemarketing laws such as the Do-Not-Call Registry.

Other Useful Resources

Give these guides a bookmark, and if you have more questions about business laws and regulations, you can post them on the SBA.gov Community Discussion Boards or drop into your local Small Business Development Center or other small business counseling resource. Don’t forget to add the Business Law Advisor blog to your RSS feeds too.

Related Blogs

• 10 Ways your Small Business May be Breaking Employment Laws
• Do your Email Marketing Activities Comply with the Law
• Starting a Freelance Business – How to Take Care of Legal, Tax and Contractual Paperwork

About the Author

Caron Beesley is a small business owner, a writer, and marketing communications consultant. Caron works with the SBA.gov team to promote essential government resources that help entrepreneurs and small business owners start-up, grow and succeed. Follow Caron on Twitter: @caronbeesley