I'll examine each of these categories today to give you the broad overview. Then I'll go into each in depth in future emails, and discuss specific strategies you can use to protect your dojo and mitigate your risk.
These are the threats that school owners are typically most familiar with, and of which they are most aware. Threats of this nature can include, but are not limited to:
- Personal injury lawsuits
- Sexual harassment claims (against you or an employee)
- Contract disputes (can happen with clients or contractors)
- Regulatory non-compliance (typically with regards to employment law)
- Fraud
Each of these issues can get you in hot water legally, either civilly or criminally. I'll explain the difference when I tackle legal issues in running a business in future emails, but just be aware that in extreme cases legal issues can actually land you in jail.
Financial Risk
Just being in business for yourself puts you in financial risk, because there are no guarantees that your business will be a success. You could lose everything you've invested for any number of reasons, should your school fail financially.
However, there are other ways you can unnecessarily place yourself at financial risk. These include, but are not limited to:
- Entering a partnership
- Not creating a corporate entity for your business
- Entering a lopsided contract (leases are the most common)
- Lack of or insufficient insurance coverage
I'll discuss each of these in future emails in this series.
Threats to Your Personal and Business Reputation
It's incredibly easy to trash someone online these days. An unfortunately, when it comes to business reviews on an online review site, you have little to no legal recourse should a customer, or even a random person, decided to post an unfair review of your business.
However, there are ways to defend yourself against bad reviews, and I'm going to share a few simple yet effective strategies and tactics to help you protect your online reputation.
On the other hand, protecting your reputation by way of word of mouth in your community is another matter. I'll also address how your reputation impacts your ability to attract and keep students, and how to keep your rep squeaky clean.
All that and more will be coming up in future emails, so stay tuned!
