Small Business Consulting
We take great pleasure in working with both individuals considering pursuing their dream – starting their very own business, as well as young businesses facing challenges on the road to growth, stability and profitability.
Start Ups
A first issue for all individuals starting a new business is choice of entity – the opportunity to consider governance issues and preferences, sources of financing and investors, management and tax matters. Considering these issues in a thoughtful, deliberate fashion can help to maximize your objectives while minimizing taxes and unnecessary costs at both the entity level and for the owners personally. While we use paralegals to assist us, we believe the initial meeting to discuss your objectives and review your options cannot be delegated; you will always meet with an experienced business attorney to discuss, review and plan for establishing your business entity. Anything short of good planning could jeopardize your business objectives.
Beyond Choice of Entity
Choice of entity is only the starting point for your new business. There may be leases to negotiate, both for premises and equipment, bank or other financing matters to resolve, a franchise agreement to pore through and dissect, employment and confidentiality agreements to consider, and more. The list of the myriad of issues which a new or existing business may, and likely will face, is long and varied. We bring a wide variety of background to counseling small business clients, allowing us to guide you through the maze of laws, regulations and issues in an economical manner. Our goals have never been, and will never be, a “one shot” representation. Our goal is to represent our business clients for the long term.
Established Companies
Once a new business is established, we continue to provide ongoing advice for the wide variety of legal issues which may be confronted by a growing business. Employment contracts and restrictive covenants, financing, corporate governance and shareholder agreements, including Buy-Sell Agreements which allow a company to remain “close” while providing liquidity to the owners, general contracts, acquisitions, mergers and divestitures, are just some of the issues a small business may need to address. Read more about our business services under Corporate Law.
This is a sampling of the small business law services provided to small- and medium-sized businesses:
- Asset Purchase Agreements
- Buy-Sell Agreements
- Capitalization Options
- “Choice of Entity” Considerations
- Contracts
- Covenants Not-to-Compete (Non-Competition Agreements)
- Employment Agreements
- Financing Options
- Initial Organizational Issues
- Leases
- Registered Agent Services
- Member/Shareholder Agreements
- Shareholder Disputes
- Tax Issues
Small Business Consulting Articles
Luck is the Residue of Design
I heard that quote from a one-man play this past weekend, "The Branch Rickey Story." Mr. Rickey was a baseball executive in the early to mid-20th century. His greatest innovation was the baseball farm system, whereby young talent is recruited and developed for the...
YOU WROTE IT, WHY NOT SIGN IT?
Sign your agreement! There are just some things I don't understand.One of them is why a company, a union, or an employer has their counterpart sign an agreement and yet they themselves never sign it. Sometimes the agreement even states that it is not effective until...
Are Your Company’s Business Records Up-to-Date?
It happened again. The pesky problem of keeping business records up to date with the Missouri Secretary of State's Office resulted in a default judgment of $9.7 million, which mushroomed to over $11 million by the time the successful plaintiff got around to collecting...
A Soft Landing From the Fiscal Cliff; Tax Highlights of the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012
In a move to avoid the fiscal cliff, the U.S. Senate, early on the morning of January 1, 2013, overwhelmingly passed a compromise bill, H.R. 8, the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 ("ATRA"), to extend and replace numerous provisions of the Internal Revenue Code,...