Congress recently passed the amendments to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) that will go into effect January 1, 2009.  It is anticipated President Bush will sign the law soon.

Read all about the new ADA amendments on my blog post for IowaBiz.

Update:  President Bush has now signed the law. 

The Midwest Small Business Conference is now set for October 10 & 11, 2008 at the Des Moines Marriott.  This event is rescheduled from the previous announcement on this blog because the original date conflicted with the Iowa-Iowa State football game. (Conference organizers learned that not even business gets in the way of football).  Fortunately the conference was able to pick up a new date and additional speakers.

I will be speaking on how to keep your business out of court.

Click here for a lineup of the conference speakers.  We hope to see you there!   

I am honored to be included among the Alltop franchising news selections.  Some exciting things have been happening for me on the franchising front including developing the franchise disclosure document and franchise agreement for a new local franchisor, the opening of a client’s new Max Muscle franchise location just on Thursday and the completion of a franchise litigation dispute.

I am also excited to attend the Forum on Franchising in Austin, Texas this October.  Last year’s seminar was one of the best I have attended.  Given this year’s lineup I am sure it will be equally as good.

Thanks to Joel Libava of Franchise King Blog for suggesting this blog for Alltop. 

Anita Campbell of Small Business Trends hosts her Back to Business Blawg Review #177 this week.  Anita was kind enough to include my post from IowaBiz on the Most Important Legal Axiom in the Business World.

For those of you not familiar with the Small Business Trends site, it is one you should follow through your feed reader or even bookmark it.  I am continually impressed with the wide array of experts posting on the site and Anita is simply one of the finest business bloggers on the planet.  Her site is truly one of the best on issues important to business.

From the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council I found this comparison of where Obama and McCain stand on the key issues of concern to U.S. small businesses.

I have not independently researched the comparison document myself but I have heard the candidates refer to many of their plans and it appears the SBE Council has tried to give a "no spin" look at the issues.

 

I connected this morning with Tyler Osby of Four Legacies Mortgage.  I met Tyler through Twitter (you can follow him @tylerosby). I have been impressed with the breadth of information he provides.  He uses Twitter in a very meaningful way by acting as a resource on the mortgage market. 

Tyler brought up a great point today during our discussion.  When someone starts a business they must demonstrate at least TWO YEARS of verifiable income, assets, credit history and tax returns before the new business owner will be able to get a new mortgage.  It’s something I’ve always known but never really discussed much with clients when they are forming a new business.

So if you are planning to start a new business be sure to review your mortgage interest rate.  Otherwise, it may be a couple of years before you can do much about it.  

 

I have seen many articles on the Internet which state that you absolutely need to form a limited liability company (LLC) if you are a small business owner.  The S corporation, once the darling of small business entities, is probably feeling a little lonely these days.

One important aspect of the S corporation is that you may be able to save on self-employment taxes by using an S corp instead of an LLC.

But don’t get too carried away in the belief that you can set a low salary says accountant Joe Kristan in his latest post on Iowa Biz regarding s corporation salaries.  The key is to set a "reasonable salary" if you are the owner, although admittedly no one really knows what that means.

As is often the case in dealing with tax issues, Joe’s advice is to remember that "pigs get fat, but hogs get slaughtered."  It’s definitely a good idea to talk with an accountant when setting your salary in your S corporation.  It could save you considerable time and expense in dealing with the IRS. 

A recent article from the Wall St. Journal online discusses something I thought I would never see from a franchisor: A money back guarantee. 

Others are not convinced and warn to investigate the details carefully in the Franchise Disclosure Document.  

Thanks to Joel Libava for pointing out the article.  Joel is a franchise consultant from Cleveland,Ohio that publishes an extraordinary amount of content regarding franchising.  Both the good and the ugly.  And never dispassionately.  Be sure to check out his Web sites if you have an interest in franchising.