Starting a Business with Multiple Owners
Starting a business with multiple owners is fairly commonplace. If you are not careful, however, it can lead to major problems down the line.
A business is really an idea when you get down to the fundamental aspects of it. While practically everyone wants to make money, businesses are usually started because somebody has an idea. More accurately, it is often because two or more people come up with something they think people will be interested in.
While the collaborative effort is great for thinking out an idea, potential problems and so on, it can ultimately lead to disaster. Ironically, this is particularly true if the business is successful. The problem? Sharing power.
If multiple people start a business, they often refer to it as “our business”. At the outset, this isn’t really a problem. As time passes, however, each owner may start to have very different ideas about what “our” business should be doing, how it should grow, niches it should get into and so on. When this occurs, “our” business soon becomes “my” business. The problem, of course, is each owner is saying this. Conflict soon follows.
If you start a business with others, it is very important to understand that you are essentially getting married. This is true even if you had the original idea, work harder than they do and so on. Ownership is ownership. Much like a marriage, you should give consideration to the business equivalent of a prenuptial agreement.
At the outset of any business venture with multiple owners, time should be taken to discuss what happens if there are problems. What if someone dies? What if someone stops working? What if a majority of owners want to go in one direction, but one person does not? How will each of these issues be handled? Whatever your decision, it needs to be put in writing. Depending on the structure of your business, it may come in the form of a buy-sell agreement. Regardless, the idea is to make sure you cover these issues up front.
At this point, you might be thinking you really would be uncomfortable discussing these issues. After all, everyone trusts each other, right? Maybe, maybe not. What tends to happen is you find out that maybe some of the owners have some very different ideas than you do. It is always best to find this out before revenues start coming in. Why? People are not eying the business bank account. They will be reasonable in discussing matters. In a worse case scenario, you may not be able to work things out. If that occurs, at least you found out before spending a lot of blood, sweat and tears on the business.
It is common to start a business with more than one business owner. Such businesses often do very well since the workload is shared. To avoid problems, just make sure everyone is on the same page up front and get it in writing!
Richard A. Chapo is with SanDiegoBusinessLawFirm.com - providing services to those who need to incorporate in California.
A Quick Lesson in Bankruptcy Exemption Allowances
The information contained in this article is solely intended to increase the skills of paralegals and other legal staff who are employed virtually or non-virtually by bankruptcy attorneys.
Exemption allowances in bankruptcy are the amount of money for specific assets allowed by the law for a debtor to keep when filing bankruptcy. During the early years of the United States and up until the mid 1800s, a person could be sent to prison for failing to pay their debts. Not only was the debtor expected to come up with the money to pay back what they owed, but they also had to pay for their imprisonment!
However, the government learned this could no longer be done because it was causing great upset to their economic system. In 1833 the practice of imprisonment for debts was eliminated at the federal level and exemptions were born and written into the bankruptcy law.
To help illustrate, below is an example of a typical exemption allowance:
Presently, in Ohio, the exemption allowance for a piece of real estate is currently $10,000; but in Texas and Florida there is no limit. So if John Doe owned a home with a value of $100,000 but he only owed $50,000 on it, that means that John has $50,000 in equity.
If John lived in Ohio, he would only be allowed to deduct $10,000 from the $50,000, thus leaving him $40,000 in unexempt equity. The $40,000 may be required to be paid by John and the money distributed to the companies he owes money to if he is filing a Chapter 7. However, if John lived in Texas or Florida, he could have $1 million in equity and the entire amount would be exempted in a Chapter 7.
The moral to this story is that exemption allowances will vary from state to state, and sometimes, district to district within the same state. It is important for anyone working in bankruptcy law (creditor or debtor) to keep updated on exemption allowances for the states they prepare bankruptcy petitions for.
Also, it is equally important to establish an open communication between yourself and the attorney you are working with. Never assume anything. Gather up questions for your attorney as you are working on bankruptcy petitions. Then schedule a time you can talk with your attorney about the case. During that time, ask your questions about exemptions or other areas of the law so you can understand how to prepare better petitions for him or her in the future.
If you are afraid to talk with your attorney freely and ask them questions, you need to look for another job. The lives of hard working consumers are at stake. If you do not explore all possibilities of the direction a case could take, you are not providing the high level of detail you should be providing to those consumers who depend on the attorneys expertise. Additionally, any attorney will agree that it is better to ask a question and get the right answer now, than to let the mistake go through and cause the attorney possible sanctions and additional problems at court.
AUTHOR BIO:
Victoria Ring is a Certified Paralegal and Bankruptcy Specialist. She has developed an entire line of training products to teach Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 petition drafting skills to attorneys, paralegals and virtual assistants working in debtor bankruptcy law. For more information, visit http://www.713training.com
Divorce Lawyer Qualifications – You Set the Bar
Assuming that you have several prospective divorce lawyers in mind to handle your divorce or custody case, you must investigate the qualifications of each attorney. Before investigating the qualifications of each attorney, you would be wise to set the bar on the minimum qualifications that are acceptable to you. An attorney’s qualifications in the following 5 areas will help you in your investigation.
(1) Percentage of practice devoted to family law
(2) Years of experience
(3) Certified specialist
(4) Law school and education
(5) Memberships
Percentage of practice devoted to family law
An attorney’s percentage of practice devoted to family law will help you assess how much experience and expertise he/she has with divorce and custody related issues. An attorney whose practice is 100% devoted to family law issues, such as divorce and custody, will likely have more expertise and familiarity with handling such cases than an attorney whose practice is not 100% devoted to family law.
Years of experience
An attorney is often valued by the number of years of experience they have in a particular area of law. The more years of experience an attorney has in family law, the more they can typically demand for his/her fees. Further, the more years of experience an attorney has with divorce or custody cases, the more likely he/she has worked on a case similar to yours and help you learn what you can likely expect and what the costs will be.
Certified specialist
Is the attorney a certified family law specialist? Some attorneys may seek to become a certified family law specialist by demonstrating extensive experience and testing in the field of family law. There are certainly attorneys with experienced and expertise in family law that have not sought out to become a certified family law specialist. Attorneys that advertise themselves as “certified specialists” may demand a higher fee.
Education
The fact that an attorney graduated from a prestigious law school does not necessarily guarantee that he/she is more qualified and more experienced in the field of family law than an attorney that has not graduated from a prestigious law school. The law school is however still something worth exploring because it may demonstrate how serious, dedicated, and committed the attorney was to his/her education. Additionally, some attorneys may have various education such as being a Certified Public Accountant or Licensed Clinical Psychologist. You will need to determine the value of the different education an attorney has and the cost that may go along with it.
Memberships
An attorney that has taken interest in the field of family law will often have memberships to organizations in the field of family law. Some memberships are available to any lawyer and some memberships are more difficult to obtain. An attorney that does not have any memberships to organizations in the field of law can often create doubt in the consumers mind about their interest in that field.
The information above about an attorneys qualifications can often be found through the State Bar website or through the Bar Association. As you seek to know more about an attorney’s qualifications, it is ultimately up to you to investigate the attorneys qualifications and set the bar on the minimum qualifications that are acceptable to you.
