I was researching some issues for an LLC operating agreement and ran across an excellent post from the Wisconsin Business Law Blog on the fact that capital calls are often overlooked by LLC investors. Attorney Todd Goodwin provided the following example,

[i]f a "capital call" provision exists and is exercised by the majority members or

Franchise Times recently published its Top 200 systems issue in a story by Jonathan Maze. The big takeaway for me is that franchising is on an upswing after experiencing no growth during much of the recent recession. But franchising has returned as a bright spot in the economy according to the article.

Restaurants appear to be the big

Prospective franchisees should read a new book from The Franchise King, Joel Libava, called Become a Franchise Owner: The Startup-Guide to Lowering Risk, Making Money, and Owning What You Do.

I don’t make that recommendation lightly. But Joel and I share a common passion. We are both passionate about making sure that franchisees

Over the last 5 years that I have been writing this blog, there haven’t been many Iowa business lawyers who write a blog on a regular basis. But when I was looking at Mike Colwell’s Startup Models site, I noticed a new blog from business lawyer Chris Sackett of Brown Winick called BizB4Law.

Chris wrote

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

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,

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