Politics affect every aspect of our lives. Even if you aren’t politically savvy, policies have definitely impacted your life or current job. However, no field or industry is affected more by policy and law than modern business.
There is a lot that a government can do to impact your profit margins, the employment process, and even your marketing campaigns. As a result, you need to keep one eye on everything in British politics to understand how upcoming changes will impact your business. This requires a lot of research. Let’s go over the political factors already influencing your business to give you an idea of what to look for in the future.
Public Policy
To understand how political factors influence your business, you must first learn about public policy. This set of policies demonstrates the regulatory measures, the financial implications, and law changes due to the decisions made by current governing bodies. There is a lot that public policy can incorporate. Knowing the outcome of these policies is fundamental for predicting how political change will alter your daily processes.
Sometimes, predicting these transformations is not as easy as drawing a straight line from one decision to one outcome. There are knock-on effects, which is why business leaders can benefit from a Public Policy Analysis online certificate course from LSE. Public policy analysis helps sharpen your sense of these decisions’ impact, so you can continue to alter your business plan whenever one of the following political processes is changed.
Taxation
Taxes are usually the first item addressed in the House of Commons, and for good reason. The tax rates in a country determine how much profit you stand to make at the end of the month. This is because all your earnings are taxed, so your overall profits will decrease if income tax rates are increased. Therefore, you will have to reduce company spending to compensate. However, there are more layers to taxation than you may realise.
Tax rates impact everyone in the country, which means that high tax rates are going to leave your customers with less money to spend on your goods or services. Therefore, you may have to change your target demographic when income tax rates are higher.
Trade Control
Politicians are responsible for regulating the laws of their country; however, they also need to negotiate with international leaders to understand the factors that are creating change within other countries. For example, the depletion of raw materials can drive the price of certain goods, which means that you may need to pay more to import the manufacturing goods that your company uses. As a result, these changes could force you to push your prices up or seek alternative suppliers. What’s more, other countries also keep their tax rates in flux. Therefore, higher export tariffs can cause your monthly expenses to soar.
Employment Laws
Employment law covers a wide array of factors beyond the simple hiring process. Of course, the Equality Act of 2010 changed modern recruitment laws to prevent discrimination during the hiring process. While these regulations are beneficial to both employers and employees, there is a lot more legislation in place regarding employee welfare that you need to be aware of.
For example, employee law also covers the Health and Safety Act, a piece of legislation that states that businesses are responsible for preventing workplace injury. Furthermore, recent changes to employee training legislation state that it is the legal responsibility of a business to train their staff in all aspects of their business. As a result, you can see how these legislative changes are going to affect your finances. Therefore, you need to stay up to date on public policy to ensure that you are setting aside enough money to cover these expenses imposed by the current laws.
Property Law
It is important to own property when running a company; however, you may not realise just how much of your business is considered property until you break it all down. First of all, you have your physical buildings including your offices, warehouses, and shipping yards. Then you also have business assets, such as your manufacturing machinery, vehicles, technology, and other resources. But this is not all. You also have what is known as your intellectual property.
Intellectual property refers to anything created by your mind that you can claim as your own invention. This can refer to your company name, published literary works, a business model, or company images. As you can see, property law is something that can affect anything in this tangled web of procedures. Therefore, you can be sure that even the slightest change to property law will immediately affect one of these aspects of your business. Make sure you read up on property law to make the necessary changes to comply with these laws.
Contract Law
Contract law can be complex to fully understand, especially if you are trying to accommodate recent changes. You should do your research, and ensure you are working with relevant experts where possible, so that you can avoid any mistakes.
You must enter into a contractual agreement with your suppliers, investors, clients, and others. These ensure that you are obeying the legislatures tied to these business deals, but what if that legislation changes? A critical parliamentary decision can easily overturn the specifics of one of your contracts, so does that nullify the agreement?
A contract lawyer can provide you with the necessary advice to navigate these situations, but you must act quickly when these changes occur. You do not want to get caught on the wrong side of a contractual law agreement, so always exercise caution and be prepared to ask questions.
Bankruptcy Law
Bankruptcy is not a process that any business leader wants to go through; however, it can be considered a lifeline to those struggling. Unfortunately, bankruptcy is different depending on your unique situation.
You may find that bankruptcy is more beneficial to you than other recent alternatives. Recouping your costs is not easy. You want to get back on your feet as soon as possible. Therefore, you need to keep an eye on the political landscape to inform you about all your options.
Environmental Law
There hasn’t been a more prominent public policy subject than the recent environmental law changes. The planet is now starting to see the effects of climate change first-hand. This means that political leaders have to introduce legislation to reduce the damage that has been done.
The Environmental Act of 2021 states that every business must consciously improve air and water quality, improve sustainability, and reduce polluted waste. This means that to follow the letter of the law, companies must now change their materials or transport procedures. Again, these come at a cost. It is not nearly as large as the cost of the fines you may receive if you break these new environmental laws. Moreover, these policies are continually under review, so ensure you stay up to date to remain an eco-friendly company in the eyes of the law.
Summary
Political changes are supposed to happen to help improve society, but they are also relevant to improving business practices. Keep on top of these changes, and you can stay within the lines of the law and see some potential benefits as a result.
