One of the biggest concerns that business owners have is dealing with a legal or business crisis. Whether it is a lawsuit, a data breach, or other sensitive issues, a crisis can greatly impact a business. In fact, it is not unusual for many businesses to close within a year of experiencing a crisis. Knowing
10 Tips for Starting a New Business in Iowa
Are you thinking about starting a new business in Iowa? Here are 10 tips to get you on your way.
Zoom Past Legal Zoom – Revisited
Years ago now I wrote a post called Zoom Past Legal Zoom. For years it has been one of the most read posts on this site and no post on the site has more comments. In that post I talked about how Legal Zoom does NOT give out legal advice and how the company’s
Listening Could Help Avoid Business Lawsuits
A blog post came to me after talking with an acquaintance last night. The acquaintance initially asked me a question but he really didn’t want to hear my answer. Instead, he wanted to tell me his news. Rather than listen to me he just wanted to talk. That was fine and I let him do
Asset Purchase Sale? Check out Unemployment History of Seller
Business buyers enter into asset purchase sales to avoid taking on the liabilities and debts of the seller. In Iowa, asset purchase buyers may be surprised to learn that under many circumstances the buyer will have successor liability with respect to the seller’s reserve account for the purposes of unemployment. This means the buyer inherits
5 Reasons to Hire a Franchise Attorney
It goes without saying considering I am a franchise lawyer, but I agree completely with the Franchise King who offered his Top 5 Reasons to Hire a Franchise Attorney in a recent post.
In my experience a lot of prospective franchisees skimp on hiring a franchise lawyer to review their FDD and franchise agreement. Many
Prospective Franchisees Need to Research Further Than FDD for Details
I read an interesting article from Entrepreneur on the Key to Understanding a Company’s FDD (franchise disclosure document). It’s an article I’d recommend prospective franchisees read but they better be prepared to go deeper if they really want to understand a Company’s FDD. The author recommends checking three key sections of the FDD:
- Item 3
Selling or Buying a Business: Pay Attention to Why Deals Don’t Close
Steve Sink wrote recently wrote a blog post on IowaBiz covering Why Deals do not Close. I recommend buyers and sellers of businesses to read the post. Fortunately, most of the deals I work on tend to close but from time to time there are issues with a deal or perhaps even litigation after a
Careful Planning Necessary When Using Retirement Monies to Fund Startup Business
Accountant Joe Kristan of Roth & Co. has an informative post on the IowaBiz Blog discussing the dangers of using IRA retirement monies to fund a startup business. In the situation described, a would-be entrepreneur took about $320,000 from his 401K and rolled it into a self-directed IRA. From there, the entrepreneur invested almost
Vote ‘Yes’ to Renovate and Update Polk County Courthouse
I generally try to stay away from politics on this blog but there is an important vote on November 5th regarding Measure A: The Polk County Public Safety Judicial System Bond. I encourage you to vote ‘Yes" for this measure.
Our Polk County Courthouse has been in use for over 100 years. While it