Entreprenuer.com recently published an article entitled “A Spartan’s Guide to Business” in reference to the blockbuster “300.” The article highlights 3 business lessons that are to be learned from the movie: Your CEO needs to be a strong leader. Train your employees and foster a culture that promotes loyalty. You
A leveraged buyout (“LBO”) is a strategy where someone acquires an existing company using a significant amount of borrowed funds. Typically, the assets of the company being purchased are used as collateral for the borrowed funds. This allows someone to acquire a company without having to outlay a lot of
In the world of mergers and acquisitions, a “basket” is the amount of damages that must be suffered by the acquiring entity before it can recover from the seller under the indemnity provisions of the acquisition agreement. Three main issues arise in drafting the basket clause: (1) Size–Typical basket amounts
According to the United States Department of Labor, reasons employers implement drug testing are to: Deter employees from abusing drugs and alcohol; Prevent hiring individuals who use illegal drugs; Provide early identification and referral of employees who have drug and/or alcohol problems; Provide a safe workplace for other employees; Ensure
If you are buying a business, the process becomes expensive and tedious once the letter of intent is signed. For this reason, I recommend all buyers include a “No Shop” provision in their LOI. This provision prevents the seller from going behind your back and finding other suitors while you
The Secretary of State fails new businesses by not requiring you to record your company bylaws. It signals to the entrepreneur that articles of incorporation are more important than company bylaws, leaving bylaw drafting a mere afterthought. Every business is different and has issues that need to be addressed in
If you’ve started a business recently you’ve probably heard about Pre-Paid Legal. Basically, you are provided “access” to an attorney for a monthly fee. Think of it as legal insurance. This may be beneficial to some small-business owners, but I offer a suggestion: Rather than pay Pre-Paid Legal $35 or
Continuing with the theme of prevention, a wise entrepreneur drafts an employment contract for each and every employee he or she hires. But a wiser entrepreneur ensures the employment contract contains all the terms of the employment agreement, leaving little room (hopefully none) for later debate. If you aren’t thorough
Once you’ve outgrown your garage, your home office or your executive suite, you will probably consider leasing commercial office space. The best advice I can give you, the entrepreneur, is to treat the office space lease process the same way you might the car buying process. If you don’t, you
I wanted to follow-up with you concerning the importance of taking preventative legal steps when starting your business. Googling this weekend, I found a blog entry from Rhonda Abrams, author of The Passionate Entrepreneur on Yahoo! Finance. Here’s an excerpt: “Taking care of your company’s legal health is like taking
