When you own your own business or professional practice, your reputation and your company’s reputation may be tied together.
If you’re accused of committing a serious crime, your company’s reputation could be put at risk. As the owner and founder, what you do does reflect on your business. If you’re falsely accused of fraud or committing another crime, then those accusations could hurt your business, too.
What can you do to contain the fallout from a criminal charge?
Remember that your reputation can be controlled. If you are being investigated or have been arrested, the first step is to take legal action to minimize how much information gets out about the case. You should also remember that what you do will reflect on you at the time of an arrest. Making a scene, for example, could lead to people making videos that go viral on the internet. Controlling your appearance, even in stressful situations, may help you mitigate the damage.
What can you do if your reputation has already been damaged due to an arrest?
Remember that you can always mitigate further damage and work on repairing your business’s reputation. Your priority should be to focus on the case and do what you can to have it dismissed. If your attorney looks into the case and believes that a plea deal or other arrangement would be in your best interests to keep the case out of court, then that may be a good way to minimize publicity as well.
After the damage is done to your business’s reputation, you can always focus on rebuilding it. Community service, special deals for customers and loyal clients and offering apologies (when appropriate) may all help your company survive the damage to its reputation that a charge could cause.