Unfortunately, being involved in a criminal lawsuit can have a multitude of collateral consequences both in your personal and professional life. As an entrepreneur, what you do in your personal life can also have a huge impact on your business. When you display an unethical behavior, your business will have to suffer too if you fail to manage the situation in a way that protects your business’s reputation.
In the business landscape, protecting your reputation as an entrepreneur is already challenging enough. But with the involvement in a criminal lawsuit, things can become even more difficult. Reputation management both in the online world and among your business contacts is vital in reshaping the public perception about your brand and your capabilities as a business owner.
If you are involved in a criminal lawsuit, protecting your business’s reputation until you prove your innocence will require a solid strategy and a few professionals to help you throughout the process.
Hire a professional criminal defense attorney
There is no other better way to protect your and your business’s reputation than proving your innocence in the criminal lawsuit. Having a criminal conviction will have a huge ripple effect both on your reputation and on your company. Thus, you must ensure that you have a professional legal team on your side to help you prove your innocence or minimize the chance of an arrest.
Hire an experienced criminal defense attorney to help you understand your rights in your situation and to offer you the best legal support in avoiding a conviction. When choosing an attorney, you must see it as an investment for your own good and your company’s good. Only a top-notch attorney will help you fight to prove your innocence and regain your freedom and a clean criminal background.
You are a human before you are an entrepreneur
We are all humans before we are our professions. Mistaking is a very humane thing. However, a mistake you make in your personal life rarely affects your capability to perform at optimal levels in your professional one.
Thus, your customers, business partners, and employees must know that your criminal lawsuit has no consequences on the way you do business. In order to protect your reputation as an entrepreneur and the reputation of your business, you need to show your business contacts the line between you as a person and you as an entrepreneur.
Manage your business’s online reputation
In today’s digital world, your business’s online reputation is paramount for its success. Today’s customers rely on the internet to find and read the reviews and experiences of their peers before making their purchase decisions. when they will look online for your brand, they will most likely find information regarding the lawsuit you are being involved it.
Luckily, you can manage your business’s online reputation with SEO. Search engine optimization is by far the best way to manage the google results your audience will see when searching for your brand. Develop pages that rank when the customers will search for your name or your business. Creating social media accounts will also help your online reputation because the firs results that usually appear when people search on the internet for a business are its social media pages.
Another great way to manage your online reputation is to hire an online reputation management firm. The professionals can help you develop a strategy to manage your online presence in a way that your criminal lawsuit won’t affect your company.
Transform your situation into something good
In today’s labor market, all companies run a background check on the candidates during the recruiting process. Often, although it is illegal, the candidates who have a criminal record are being discriminated and not hired due to this reason.
Having a criminal record doesn’t necessarily mean that you are a bad person or that you are not qualified for the job. Everybody could have made a mistake in their past and it is not morally right to judge them or their capabilities in the present moment depending on that. Thus, it is wrong to judge a candidate based on a criminal record.
When you are being involved in a criminal lawsuit yourself, you can use the situation in the advantage of your business by creating a program that encourages candidates with criminal records to apply to your job. The public opinion is aware of the fact that discriminating someone based on a past mistake is a wrong thing. Thus, if you show empathy to the disadvantaged candidates in the labor market, your business may be seen with better eyes by your customers. Businesses which seem concerned and are willing to get involved in solving hot points for the common good are more willing to be seen with a good eye by the public opinion.
For example, a non-profit organization called Progressive Prison Project, owned by an entrepreneur who himself had a criminal conviction, supports business owners who have been accused of or charged with a criminal offense. This is a good example of how to transform a controversial mistake into something good for your business reputation. You will build a company culture that is against discrimination and promotes acceptance and diversity.
Continue to be a successful entrepreneur
There is probably no worse idea in your situation than to neglect your responsibilities as an entrepreneur. When being involved in a criminal lawsuit, you certainly experience psychological stress and a wide range of negative emotions. However, your business’s success can’t afford you to allow yourself to be distracted and not fulfill your responsibilities. Your customers, business partners, and employees must see your level of professionalism and experience as an entrepreneur even in difficult times.
Bouncing back in the business landscape from your mistakes can be difficult. It takes time, patience, and a powerful strategy to reshape how your business is perceived by the public opinion.
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