Protect your business

• To run your business legally, you may need register for these basics:
  • Australian Business Number (ABN)
  • Goods and Services Tax (GST)
  • Tax file number (TFN)
  • Pay as you go (PAYG) withholding.
• Make sure you hold any other licences and permits you need for your business.

Protect your business with the basics

• There are other laws you need to consider to protect your business.
• Other common laws your business may need to follow to legally operate can include:
  • Fair trading laws
  • Australian Consumer Law
  • Competition and Consumer Act
  • Australian standards
  • Codes of conduct
  • Warranties and refunds
  • Product labelling
  • Contracts
  • Privacy laws
  • Employment laws.
• Speak to professionals to understand the legal requirements for your business.

Get advice

If you employ staff there are a range of legal requirements you must meet.

You need to understand your responsibilities around:

• paying superannuation
• managing pay and conditions
• leave entitlements, and more.

Read the managing employees guide

• By law, you may need some insurances to run your business.
• Insurance is an important part of protecting your business.
• The insurance you may need depends on your type of business. The most common are:
  • public liability insurance
  • workers compensation insurance (if you have employees or contractors)
  • third party personal injury insurance (if your business uses motor vehicles). This is often part of your vehicle registration fee.
• Other insurances you may need include:
  • professional indemnity
  • product liability
  • revenue
  • personal or loss of income
  • property, stock and asset
  • cyber.
• Talk to an adviser or insurance broker to make sure you have the right policies in place.

Learn more about different insurances

• As an employer you must have a current ACT workers’ compensation policy with an approved insurer.
• You must keep this policy up to date.
• Workers’ compensation is a type of insurance that can offer workers compensation if they are injured or become ill because of work.
• If a worker is injured at work, they can lodge a claim against their employer's mandatory insurance policy to:
  • replace loss of income
  • pay medical and rehabilitation expenses, and
  • compensate permanent impairment.
• Protect yourself and your employees with the right workplace health and safety (WHS) procedures. This will help minimise the risk of injury in the workplace.

Find out about ACT workers' compensation

• There are many different risks to your business.
• These can negatively impact your business.
• Risks to consider include:
  • work health and safety issues
  • economic conditions
  • product reliability issues
  • supply chain issues
  • technical and cyber security
  • legal issues
  • staffing issues
  • government regulations
  • natural disasters and emergencies.

Having a plan can help you manage risks and know how to deal with it if something goes wrong.

Learn more about business risk

• There are many risks and threats that could damage your business operations and your reputation.
• Complete a risk management plan to:
  • assess the chance of risk
  • know the risks your business should address
  • reduce the chances of damage to your business property
  • reduce the amount of damage if something does happen.

Prepare a risk management plan

• Creating policies, procedures and processes can improve your productivity and also reduce your risk.
• Policies outline your business values and where you stand on big issues.
• Processes outline the actions you need to take to do something.
• Procedures are similar to processes but give more detailed, often step-by-step instructions.
• The policies, processes and procedures you have will depend on your business, but some common ones include:
  • Workplace Health and Safety
  • recruitment and induction
  • staff onboarding
  • computer and social media use at work
  • opening and closing the business
  • handling customer complaints.

Learn more about policies, processes and procedure

• Protecting your business with IP rights means only you can profit from them.
• Research shows only around 7% of Australian small businesses have any form of intellectual property protection.
• Intellectual property (IP) refers to creations of the mind. This can include a brand, logo, invention, design or artistic work, or new plant variety.
• You can protect your:
  • business idea and product with a patent
  • business name, logo, phrase or other branding element with a registered trade mark
  • protect the unique appearance of your product with a design right
  • protect a new plant variety with a plant breeder's rights.

  Learn more about IP

• A registered trade mark can protect a small business’s brand. It can also help you distinguish your products or services from competitors.
• Registering a business name does not give you exclusive trading rights or ownership over that name.
• It doesn’t stop other businesses from using it for their products or services.
• You can protect your business name with a registered trade mark.
• A registered trade mark gives you a legal avenue to stop others using that name to trade similar goods and services in Australia.
• TM Checker is a simple tool to check if your name is available to trade mark in Australia.
• It’s important to check if there are similar trade marks already registered by a competitor. This will help confirm you’re not infringing on someone else’s IP.

Use the TM Checker

• A design right protects the overall visual appearance of new and distinctive products that are tangible and can be manufactured or hand-made.
• This could include the design of a watch, a piece of furniture or a piece of clothing.
• When you register for a design right it gives you the exclusive right to use your design within Australia. Within 6 months of your application, you can apply for the same design right overseas.
• A design right won’t protect your brand or logo. You need to consider a trade mark if you want to protect your brand or logo.

Learn more about design rights

• A patent protects new inventions such as devices, substances, methods, and processes.
• You can use a patent to protect your invention as long as it's new, useful, inventive and a suitable subject matter.
• Patents can protect lots of different types of inventions like medical technology, pharmaceuticals, appliances, and mechanical devices.
• You cannot patent artistic creations, mathematical models, plans, schemes, or mental processes.
• A patent from IP Australia can only protect your invention in Australia. If you want protection in other countries, you’ll need to apply in those countries.

Learn more about patents

• As a business owner you’re responsible for managing workplace health and safety.
• This includes physical and mental wellbeing of staff.

Learn more about WHS for your business

• Many cyber threats attack the collection and storage of your customers’ personal information.
• There is cyber security support for your business. It can help you protect your business, reputation and your customers’ information and privacy. Go to step 8 in this guide for more on cyber security.
• To ensure you protect this information, you must comply with privacy laws.
• Privacy laws regulate how a business must handle personal information, especially for direct marketing.
• You can learn more about your obligations from The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC).
• The OAIC is an independent agency dealing with privacy, freedom of information and government information policy.

Complete the privacy checklist

• Small businesses that sell goods or services need to comply with Australian Consumer Law.
• Fair Trading is responsible for regulating the relevant laws. They help businesses meet their obligations for their industry. This reduces the chance of consumers experiencing difficulties.

Find out more

• Under Australian Consumer Law, suppliers and manufacturers of goods and services automatically provide guarantees about the:
  • goods they sell
  • products they hire or lease
  • services they provide to consumers.
• These are known as Consumer Guarantees. They are an extra guarantee to any warranty you give.
• Under these guarantees, your customers have the right to seek remedies from you.
• You need to give consumers a remedy if goods or services do not meet these guarantees.
• If the issue is a minor failure, you can choose to give the consumer a refund, repair or replacement.
• If the issue is a major failure, the consumer can choose a repair, a refund or a replacement.
• You must also pay any costs the consumer incurs because of the failure.
• You can't make a contract to get out of these guarantees. They will apply regardless of your own refund policy or signage.
• Telling your customer there are no refunds can be misleading about their rights and may be a breach of the Australian Consumer Law.

Learn more about guarantees and refunds

• Some businesses need to share policies with customers.
• If you run a digital business, add common policies to your websites. This can include:
  • terms and conditions
  • privacy policy
  • returns policy.
• Policies can protect you, but you may need to establish contracts for your work.
• If you agree to a job for money or some other benefit, you’re entering a commercial contract. A contract is legally enforceable. It doesn’t matter if it was verbal or written.
• Be clear and sign a contract before work starts.
• Get legal advice if you are unsure.

Learn more about Australian consumer law

• There are safety standards your business needs to follow to keep consumers safe.
• If you’re selling goods or services, there may be mandatory information and safety standards that those goods or services must meet.
• For example, if you sell children’s toys, clothing or car seats, there is information you need to tell consumers and safety standards you need to meet. If you don’t, you could breach Australian Consumer Law. There may be legal and financial consequences.

Check you meet the standards

• There are laws you have to follow when advertising your business.
• It is illegal to make false or misleading claims or to send unsolicited commercial emails or SMS without consent.

Learn more

• In Canberra there are laws that regulate the design, size and placement of advertising.
• For example, businesses can display up to two “A-frame” style movable signs within their commercial or industrial trading area, while open for trading.
• City and Environment regulate these movable signs. They also regulate posters or flyers, and noticeboards.
• It is illegal to put up flyers, posters or self-adhesive signs or stickers on public assets, or in public and private places. This includes walls, poles, light posts, fences and hoardings.
• There are also rules for roadside advertising on vehicles.

• When protecting your business you should be especially aware of online threats.
• There are increased risks of digital scams and security threats. You need to know what to look for and where to get help if you need it.
• Become familiar with the most common cyber threats and know how to protect your business.
• The Australian Signals Directorate’s Australian Cyber Security Centre (ASD’s ACSC) is the Australian Government’s technical authority on cyber security.
• The ACSC has published a range of resources to help protect businesses against common cyber threats.
• This includes a small business cyber security guide and a checklist.
• They found the top 3 self-reported cybercrime types for businesses:
  • email compromise (20%)
  • online banking fraud (13%)
  • business email compromise fraud (13%)
• Understand the risks and protect your business.

Protect your business from cyber threats

• The Australian Government provides the following cyber security and digital support services for small businesses:
  • Small Business Cyber Resilience Service:  free, tailored, person-to-person support for small businesses to build their cyber resilience and recover from a cyber incident.
  • Cyber Wardens: provides small business owners and employees with free online training to identify cyber safety practices they can implement to prevent and protect against cyber threats.
  • Digital Solutions: helps support small business to harness opportunities and grow in the digital economy.

Protect your business from cyber threats

• If your business has experienced a cyberattack, contact the Australian Cyber Security Hotline.
• The hotline is contactable 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, via 1300 CYBER1 (1300 292 371)
• The hotline is run by The Australian Signals Directorate’s Australian Cyber Security Centre (ASD’s ACSC). It is the Australian Government’s technical authority on cyber security.
• There are also a range of tools and support to help you report and recover from a cyber incident.

Report and recover from a cyberattack

• Protect your business from fees and fines.
• If you change your business structure, name or your contact details you must inform the:
  • Australian Taxation Office (ATO)
  • Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC)
  • Australian Business Register (ABR).

• You must inform them within 28 days to avoid penalties and fines.

Update your business details

• Look at what threats could impact your business.
• Develop an emergency plan.
• It can help you act quickly and recover.
• This could be an emergency situation or natural disaster like flood or bushfire.

Protect your business in an emergency

• Contact local emergency services, like police, fire brigade and ambulance services if your business is under immediate threat.
• Regularly check ACT Emergency Services Agency (ACT ESA) website for the most up to date information about the situation and any actions you need to take.
• Check the ACT ESA incidents map.
• When an emergency happens, follow your business’s emergency management plan.
• If you don't have one, use the take action checklist to help you with what to do next.
• Make sure your ABN details and business location are correct on the Australian Business Register (ABR). Government agencies use this information to check if you are eligible for financial assistance, grants or support during emergencies.

What to do in an emergency