Starting a Business

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Over the last several years, the limited liability company (LLC) has become the entity of choice for the majority of new business owners. In Iowa, there are approximately twice as many filings for the LLC each year than there are for corporations. People tend to like the flexibility afforded by the LLC. With an LLC, you receive the limited liability protection…

I had the opportunity to attend the Forum on Franchising in Baltimore this past month. The Forum Chair, Joseph Fittante, was recently interviewed by BlueMauMau on the state of franchise law which I thought was important to share.

Fittante commented that he is seeing more high stakes litigation. In his experience the number of litigation cases are decreasing but…

Lately we’ve heard from a number of business owners that are interested in franchising their businesses. It’s always exciting to talk with entrepreneurs who are enthusiastic about their business models. Franchising is an attractive option for many.

But there are lots of things to consider before you move down the path of franchising your business. First, you’ll…

One of the things I love the most is providing proactive educational workshops to companies and other organizations.  Due to the ever-growing interest in the topic, I am pleased to announce that I am now offering a new legal training workshop for businesses, large and small, regarding social media. A custom workshop will be designed for your business to cover the following topics:

  • Overview of Social Media,

…

Franchisees generally want an exclusive territory that is protected from encroachment by other franchisees or the franchisor’s company owned stores. Unfortunately franchisees are often under the mistaken belief they have an "exclusive territory" when they really don’t.

You must consider whether the franchisor has reserved rights that could cause encroachment or competition from the franchisor, other…

Steve Sink has a post on IowaBiz entitled Using an appraiser to value the business. It’s a worthwhile read.

Steve brings up a good point that many buy/sell agreements are silent on the qualifications of appraisers. He writes that the qualifications of appraisal firms should be specified based on their size, the scope of their…

I advise business owners to seek the advice of an accountant when they are forming a corporation – particuarly if they have multiple businesses. A recent post from accountant Joe Kristan on IowaBiz shows why as a Michigan couple ended up with a $16 million problem in Tax Court.

As the saying goes, "An ounce…