Small Business Legal Issues

Establish a Records Retention Schedule for your Business

All of us know, or should know, that we need to save and safeguard our business records. When we start up it’s easy to hang on to every document, receipt, invoice, and business record. But after a few years we find that all these records we’ve been keeping are taking up more floor space in file cabinets [...]

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Nonprofit Corporation Basics

All sorts of groups, from artists and musicians to people active in education, health, and community services wish to operate as nonprofit (or not-for-profit) corporations. Often the reason for doing this is simple — nonprofit status is usually a requirement for obtaining funds from government agencies and private foundations. Obtaining grants, however, is not the [...]

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Shareholder/Partnership Agreements: Prepare for the Worst and You Will Succeed

So you are starting a new business and you and your partners are really excited about the endless possibilities that await you. The last thing you want to think about is the worst-case scenario — the failure of the business or a partnership gone wrong. Failure to plan and lack of funding are both leading [...]

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Plan for Changes in LLC Ownership with Buy-Sell Provisions

Many, if not most, LLC owners overlook a critical element of their operating agreement that can save them both money and angst: buy-sell provisions. When you create buy-sell, or buyout, provisions for your operating agreement, you and your co-owners can prepare for events that have been the downfall of more than a few successful small [...]

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Creating an LLC Operating Agreement

An LLC operating agreement allows you to structure your financial and working relationships with your co-owners in a way that suits your business. In your operating agreement, you and your co-owners establish each owner’s percentage of ownership in the LLC, his or her share of profits (or losses) and his or her rights and responsibilities, [...]

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Running Your Nonprofit Corporation

Nonprofit corporations are organized very much like regular corporations; however, running a nonprofit corporation means complying with a few special rules. Here’s what you need to know. Organizational structure of nonprofit corporations Like any corporation, a nonprofit has a board of directors to make important policy decisions, officers (president, treasurer and secretary) to oversee and [...]

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Five Reasons to Incorporate Your Nonprofit

If you’re involved in a fledgling nonprofit organization, you and the other folks active in the group have probably wondered whether or not you should incorporate. Becoming a nonprofit corporation requires some paperwork, but for many groups, the benefits of nonprofit status outweigh the complications. Here are five circumstances that may make it worth your [...]

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Plan for Ownership Changes with Shareholders

While diligently filing articles of incorporation and adopting bylaws, many corporate owners overlook a critical element of their business relationship: buy-sell, or buyout, provisions. By creating a shareholders’ agreement with buy-sell provisions, the owners of a small, privately held corporation can prepare for events that have been the downfall of more than a few successful [...]

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Plan for Changes in Partnership Ownership with a Buy-Sell Agreement

Many business partners overlook a critical element of their partnership agreement that can save them both money and angst: buy-sell provisions. When you create buy-sell, or buyout, provisions for your partnership agreement, you and your partners can prepare for events that have been the downfall of more than a few successful small businesses — namely, [...]

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Creating a Business Partnership Agreement

If you and your partners don’t spell out your rights and responsibilities in a written partnership agreement, you’ll be ill-equipped to settle conflicts when they arise, and minor misunderstandings may erupt into full-blown disputes. In addition, without a written agreement saying otherwise, your state’s law will control many aspects of your business. How a partnership [...]

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