As a manager or business owner, it is of the utmost importance to stay on top of industry standards and government regulations. If you don’t, you risk costly lawsuits, might miss out on valuable government grants and tax breaks, and could garner a poor reputation with a jaded customer base.
Review Regulations That Apply Now
It can seem daunting to wade through all the required licenses for your industry and to keep track of when they need to be renewed, but fortunately there are lots of sites that list permits you’ll need for your business by industry or by state. Many government websites also explicitly list rules and regulations for industries such as the liquor and nuclear industries.
Cybersecurity, for example, is a huge problem for businesses around the world. The healthcare industry and any business that works with medical records or information, such as insurance, is subject to regulations that help keep medical records safe.
Additionally, any business that deals with online payments or credit card transactions is subject to Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS). These regulations help to keep customer data safe in the same way that HIPAA and healthcare regulations protect patient data.
Make sure that you’ve reviewed these rules and comply with them. Even if you are not the subject of a lawsuit, failure to comply with these standards could mean that the government forces you to close your doors for a time or stop selling a certain product, which could cause you to lose a significant amount of revenue.
Prepare for Future Regulations
It’s also important to know about rules that you might break in the future. For instance, if you’re a small business, make sure you know what rules will apply once you grow a little larger, such as how many employees you will be allowed to have working in a certain space, or federal and state safety rules regarding fire escapes and smoke detectors. Knowing these regulations in advance will help you grow into a larger company more quickly and without too much hassle.
Tax regulations and law, for example, could take you completely off guard as you grow. As the experts at MileIQ write:
“Hiring employees places you in an entirely new bracket of tax complications. It’s one thing if you make a mistake calculating an employee’s payroll and correct it the next week. When you make a mistake calculating your IRS payroll deductions, consequences can be far worse.”
Remember, the government’s standards and regulations change all the time — it’s up to you, not them, to protect your business by staying up to date. Creating a calendar and marking the dates on which you need to renew licenses, as well as regularly checking government websites for your industry’s standards and rules, will help you keep your business operating legally.
Use Regulations to Your Advantage
Tracking standards and regulations is not only great for helping you keep on the right side of the law — working knowledge of standards and regulations can help you save money too. For instance, knowledge about size regulations for small businesses may prove useful for you as you apply for government grants and calculate tax breaks and tax deductibles. Sites like the U.S. Small Business Administration’s website list guidelines for small businesses as well as certificate programs. You can also save money by setting a standard that is higher than the industry for your company.
The government often provides incentives, in the form of lower interests rates on loans, tax breaks, and even grants, to those companies which shoot for higher than the legally established industry standards. For instance, the Small Business Innovation Research Program is designed to promote technological research and innovation in small businesses, and it’s just one of many such programs that apply to a diverse range of industries.
If you’re part of a larger corporation, it is just as important, or perhaps even more important, for you to track industry standards and regulations. Business.usa.gov is an important website for both large and small companies that outlines regulations and standards on subjects as diverse as growing your business, exporting and working with foreign companies and affiliates, and state and local rules. Finally, IRS.gov is an important website for any business when it comes to learning about regulations in regards to taxes.
These standards are of the utmost importance because they protect you, your employees, your customers, and the industry at large. Failure to comply can result in hefty fines, problems for your customers, and, at worst, could equate to business failure. While small business failure is something that you can recover from, why dance with risk in the first place?
It may seem tedious to research and keep track of all the industry regulations and standards related to your business, but doing so can give your business the competitive edge it needs to remain viable and grow. Don’t be lazy — be informed. Stay on top of compliance and regulation.