When you take a look CB Insight’s list of 20 Reasons Startups Fail, you can clearly see that a vast majority of reasons – including “poor products” and “getting outcompeted” – happens because of leadership failure at some level.

What you need to realize is a large number of today’s entrepreneurs are quite young. For example, Evan Spiegel founded Snapchat when he was 23 years old, meanwhile, Drew Houston was only a year older when he founded Dropbox.

However, while all of these young people had their trials and tribulations, through which they managed to persevere, they still had a ton of luck on their side. Hundreds and thousands of young entrepreneurs who are following in their footsteps clearly have no idea just how hard is it to keep a business afloat, mainly because they don’t have any experience running a startup.

And seeing how they simply have too much on their plates, it’s not surprising that so many of them underestimate the legal requirements. While in some cases everything goes smoothly after a lawsuit, in others companies take huge hits. Just last year, the ever-popular fantasy sports companies Fan Duel and Draft Kings suffered major losses after being question about the legality of their business.

While some businessmen are quick to fill trademarks and sing all the agreements before the government interferes into their business and stops their operations in track, as you can see from Fan Duel, Draft Kings and countless other examples, some don’t…

In order to avoid any of these troubles, you need to do your homework, and handle all of your legal business during the first 12 months of your venture. So in order to help you bypass this, here are a couple of issues you should pay special attention to…

3 Legal Issues You Need to Take Care of Right Away

• The Founders Agreement

Starting a company completely alone is a serious task, which is why so many people start looking for co-founders as soon as they come up with a solid business idea. However, when people don’t agree on certain issues – like the future of their startup – arguments start happening. For example, Housing.com saw three of its twelve co-founders leave just last year.

Needless to say, the company took lost some money – and even a couple of crucial investors – in the process, which naturally slowed their business down. So before you get your company of the ground, you need to come up with a strong founders agreement in order to provide a roadmap for your company before any arguments come about.

• Copyright Ownership Laws

In the last couple of years, copyright laws have become a cause of much controversy. For example, the European Union is currently revising some of its copyright laws, and the reform that has strict measures on data mining is having a negative effect on European tech startups. And if the proposed law is passed, EU startups will need to change their business models in the next three years.

So if your startup is based in Europe and you want your business to survive by the end of the decade, you need to special attention to the development of this situation. And not only that, but you also have to be careful about your marketing material as well. Because if you’re using a piece of art based on a, let’s say, popular character, you have to see if the copyright laws in your country or state allow this.

• Surety Bonds

Surety bonds are probably the last thing you’ll see on a checklist of any inexperienced entrepreneur out there. But what you need to realize is that these bonds are one of the most important migration tools you can have. They will provide a guarantee to your customers that your organization will follow any contract or fulfill any duties you offer in accordance to the law.

You should also be aware that in some parts of the world, startups can’t even get off the ground without surety bonds, so check you need to check your laws. And if you don’t know where to start, you can always pay for legal counseling. But if that’s a little too much for your budget to handle, you can also use a company like JW Surety Bonds, which will find the lowest-priced bonds and pay for them instantly.

Useful legal Resources for Startup Owners

If you’ve never dealt with things like copyrights, trademarks and various policies, all of these issues might some confusing to say the least. However, the Internet today is full of resources that may provide an answer for any legal inquiry you have…

• Rocket Lawyer

This site will give you access to more than 40 million legal documents for free and also provide you with some entry-level legal advice. What’s more, Rocket Lawyer will allow you to incorporate your startup in a matter of minutes and it will file all of your work and check your business name as well.

• Startup Lawyer

The name say it all – Startup Lawyer is a site that aims to help young entrepreneurs deal and solve legal issues in the simplest and quickest way possible. It gives users access to topics such as Startup Issues and Seed Rounds and allows them to look through the Startup Law Glossary.

• Lawtrades

With Lawtrades, you have a complete law dictionary at the palm of your hand at all times. It’s pretty easy to use – the words, phrases and terms are sorted in an alphabetical order – and include every term possible, from “Incentive Stock Options” to “Limited Liability Company.”

• Markify

Since you’ll definitely need to browse through trademarks you’ll need a website that will allow you to search any trade mark. And that’s why Markify is there for. In addition to searching and watching trademarks, it can also give you reports made with the similarity method and search for similar and new domain names.

Why You Need Legal Guidance at All?

A huge part of the problem is, most startups are working on extremely tight budgets for the first couple of months, and while hiring a layer might seem like large, unnecessary investment, not having your legal house in order can be quite expensive.

For example, just look the successful mobile payment company Square Inc. that was fined for more than $500,000 in Florida a few years ago simply for operating without a proper money transmission license. Obviously, the fine didn’t sink the company, but it was still a huge blow. And fines are just one piece of the puzzle, because legal issues could potentially squander your reputation with both your current and future customers.

Although the need to keep with your competitors and expand to new markets as quickly as possible can be pressing, you simply can’t cut any corners if your reputation is on the line. That’s why you need to work with a trusted legal team early on to ensure you’re working within the letter of law.