A recent survey by online payroll service SurePayroll reveals that more than 80 percent of small business owners believe e-mail is a key element in the success of their business. But email can also cause legal problems for entrepreneurs . . . something not highlighted in the survey.Â
Email is not reliable. In a very short period of time, small business owners have somehow developed the mindset that email is infallible. Once you have sent it, delivery is guaranteed. But it’s not. Email gets stuck in spam filters. Or, a technological hiccup causes the packets of information that course through the phone/cable/DSL lines to disappear. If you have a deadline to meet and rely only on email to meet it, you could be in breach of your obligations if the recipient doesn’t receive it. Better to confirm with a telephone call, fax, overnight courtier, or other method of delivery.Â
Email can be too casual. When I was a kid, there was a craze for autograph books. Especially at year’s end, we’d run around to all our friends (and especially the cute guys) to get them to sign their names or write funny messages that would take us through the summer months on happy memories. I recall one – 2 Ys U R, 2 Ys U B, I C U R 2Ys 4 Me. I’ve been getting a spate of messages like that, sent from emails, BlackBerrys, or phone text messages, which are problematic. They may not fully answer a question that was asked. Or maybe they don’t contain a proper cross-reference to the item they’re responding to. It makes it more difficult to conduct business when you have to engage in guesswork and endless confirmations because the other person can’t be bothered to write out a full sentence. Â
Email can create premature agreements. Emailers often don’t realize that their casual agreement, handled via email, can bind them without any of the other important terms being negotiated in advance. For example, you might agree to provide consulting services at a particular rate per session, beginning August 1st. But without something in writing saying that you don’t have to deliver further consulting sessions until you’re paid for the ones you have already given, you could leave yourself vulnerable to open invoices for extended periods of time. Better to make it clear that whatever you negotiate will be subject to a signed agreement containing all the terms.Â
Email may be sent by mistake. How many times has your inbox been inundated because 57 people hit “Reply Allâ€? (instead of “Replyâ€?) to a message about a meeting date? How many times have you mistakenly sent “Sendâ€? before you had the opportunity to proofread what you’ve written? (How many people actually proofread, instead of relying only on Spell-Check?) Email incites us to do business quickly –- get it off my plate! Out of my inbox! — when the better practice may require pausing for a moment. Recently, a client signed a lease that was emailed to her, only to learn later that the sender sent her the “wrong versionâ€? of the lease. Had the client had signed the lease (which she didn’t, for other reasons), the landlord could have been bound to terms she didn’t want. Â
Email creates a written record . . . when you may not want one. Once you send an email, it resides somewhere, on someone’s server. You may have things to say about someone that are not entirely complimentary. Or, you may have sensitive or confidential information for someone’s eyes only. Many major corporations faced severe penalties in court because there was an email record of the harm their product caused, or the way management intended to defraud shareholders. The rules of discovery permit copying of information from computer servers, because even when you have hit “Delete,â€? that’s not the end of the email!Â
Do I love email? Yes I do! But it’s not 100% reliable, and it can raise a number of legal and professional problems. Keep that in mind when communicating in cyberspace!Â
This entry was posted on Friday, July 13th, 2007 at 10:25 am and is filed under Running Your Company. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.9 Responses to “Entrepreneurs Rely on Email for Business Success, Despite Legal Problems”
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July 17th, 2007 at 1:49 pm
For having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged, by better information or fuller consideration, to change opinions, even on important subjects, which I once thought right but found to be otherwise. –Benjamin Franklin
As a Certified Identity Theft Risk Management Specialist from the Institute of Fraud Risk Management, I find that small businesses are ill equipped to understand what their legal rights are day to day. When I talk to a small business owner, he bristles with “I’ve got a friend that’s an attorney and he gives me free advice.� Right. Or the old standby: “Hey, we run a clean business here, I’ve never even needed an attorney.� Sad, but true. I suggest dear business owner that you remove some of the “risk� out of your life and build a relationship with an AV certified attorney group (similar to the most of the attorney’s I represent) and educate, train and provide legal services to your employees (no Mr. Businessman….they can’t use the system against you). The best defense is a good….that’s right, OFFENSE. You are prepared in every other area of your business…why in heavens name wouldn’t you want to have access to consultants and attorneys….every….single….day! Expensive….? Nope: http://www.NowViewInfo.biz
July 29th, 2007 at 7:35 am
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