Category: Startup Issues

Every now and then you’ll find a business lawsuit that reeks of desperation. I found one. I guess having a frivolous lawsuit filed against you is a signal that your startup company has “made it.” But I imagine you’d rather find out a different way.

A commercial office space lease is a complicated legal document and is usually your startup company’s first big contract. A real estate broker is a great resource to find available office space and determine the market rents. However, your lease’s location and rent provisions account for about only 10% of the language in a commercial…

New data suggests aging baby boomers are leading the surge in entrepreneurship. In a recent article, the Fortune Small Business unit reports how a recent study found that the number of middle-aged Americans starting their own business is surging. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the ranks of the self-employed aged 55 to…

Buying into a franchise is one method an entrepreneur might undertake to start his or her own business. Franchises provide the entrepreneur with name-recognition, training and operational support from day one in exchange for an initial franchise fee and continuing franchise royalty payments. While the initial franchise fee is a one-time lump sum payment, the…

You have many choices when selecting a lawyer to assist your startup company…us lawyers aren’t exactly an endangered species. But one decision you should never make is to draft legal documents yourself. These documents are just too critical to be drafted and–more importantly–issue spotted without legal education and experience.Because entrepreneurs are resourceful and capital tends…

In a couple of previous posts, I discussed the value of buy-sell agreements for businesses with 2 or more owners and also one of the two major types of buy-sell agreements, the cross-purchase plan. This post is dedicated to the other main variation of the buy-sell agreement, the stock redemption plan. Under a stock redemption…

Most–if not all–entrepreneurs know that their website plays a vital role in the marketing and branding of their startup company. But do most entrepreneurs understand what they are really paying for when they hire someone to design and/or host their website? (OK, if you are a tech startup you can skip to my next post.)

The folks at Bootstrapper have published a list of 100 Daily Must-Reads for Entrepreneurs. The list is organized by categories such as capital raising, managing debt and risks, staff management, venture capital, small business issues and marketing. I haven’t had the time to visit all 100 blogs yet, but so far I’ve been impressed with…

The cross-purchase is one of the two main ways (“stock redemption” the other) a buy-sell agreement can be structured to provide your company with a succession plan. Under a cross-purchase plan, each company shareholder agrees in advance to buy the shares of the withdrawing shareholder while the withdrawing shareholder agrees to sell his or her…

A buy-sell agreement is a document that preserves continuity of business ownership when specific events occur, such as death or disability of a business owner. It is a contract between shareholders or business partners concerning the future ownership of the business and can be drafted as part of the company’s shareholder agreement or as a…