If you’re interested in buying a franchise and in the process of reviewing the franchise disclosure document (FDD), I recommend a post from business attorney and franchise consultant Mike Sheehan on Item 19 financial disclosures. Mike starts his post by giving some good general information about FDDs including the fact, despite the voluminous nature
Price Shopping v. Loyalty on Business Insurance Policies
A lot of business owners are understandably price conscious when it comes to their business insurance policies. Often, business owners will shop their business insurance and hop from insurance company to insurance company in the hopes of finding the most affordable policy.
The problem with this strategy is that if a claim occurs it may
Supreme Court Upholds Affordable Care Act
Yesterday the United States Supreme Court upheld, in a 5-4 decision, the constitutionality of the individual mandate under the Affordable Care Act. I am no expert on the act and I have not had time to closely review the decision. Consequently, I suggest you do what I am doing and go read some of the
Veterans Moving Toward Franchises?
I read an interesting article from Entrepreneur Magazine entitled Back to Civilian Life, Veterans Try Franchises. The article discusses how a former fighter pilot purchased a franchise after retiring from the U.S. Air Force.
A couple of months ago I spoke at the Iowa Veterans Career Retreat. Many of those in attendance were looking
Business Partnerships Always End
Mike Colwell of the BIZ recently wrote an excellent post on IowaBiz titled Partnerships a Guaranteed Divorce. Mike explains in his post that wise business people will always plan for the divorce. The end is inevitable, whether it’s due to death, retirement, disagreement or other reasons.
Mike also linked to my recent seminar on
Corporation, S Corporation or LLC? What to Choose for Your Business?
The Boulder Business Advisor has a general overview of the three main types of business structures and the factors that go into making a decision about which entity to choose for your startup business.
It’s important to get tax advice when deciding what entity is best for you. Another critical question, as mentioned in
Contract Negotiations: Find the Person that Wants the Deal
I was busy reading an article on Why Lawyers Don’t Run Startups (And Why Entrepreneurs Hate Lawyers) when I ran across a terrific lesson learned from the article’s author, Steve Blank.
In every company that gives you a contract there’s someone who wants a deal. When you run into contract issues, call them first
Employee Wage Misclassification Should Be Taken Seriously
Last December I wrote about how an employee wage misclassification case cost Oracle $35 million. The question about whether an employee is exempt v. non-exempt is often misunderstood by employers. Often, employers want to avoid paying overtime to employees. So employers will play a game of Russian roulette by paying those workers a salary instead
Business Succession Planning Seminar
Over the years I’ve noticed that very few businesses actually plan for selling or passing on their business to employees or family. It’s one of the most important things any business owner can do.
I’ve teamed up with business coach Monte Wyatt to provide a free seminar to business owners on business succession planning. The
Copyright Infringement: What do I do if Someone Copies My Website
* This is a guest post from Aaron Hall. Aaron is a Minnesota business lawyer that handles intellectual property matters. See his information below.
Someone is copying my website. What are my options?
Illegally copying websites is a big problem as the internet grows. Illegal copies of your website may be made by competitors, spammy