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Four Business-killing Mistakes to Avoid

October 25, 2012

Franchise businesses are a wonderful way for professionals to build thriving small businesses, but there are some icebergs out there potential franchise owners need to avoid.

Here are four:

Failure to absorb the FDD

It’s baffling to think that a franchisee would invest thousands of dollars in a business venture without knowing what he or she was getting into — especially when the law requires franchisors to disclose detailed information about operations, costs, earning potential and legal requirements.

But it happens. People get so excited about their business venture that they don’t read the Franchise Disclosure Document, or just read the Item 7 expenditures and Item 19 earnings information and skip over the rest. Then they’re caught by surprise later when it’s too late. (more…)

Legal Myths That Can Cost You A Fortune

October 23, 2012

Myths about the law abound. They range from age-old lore, like “possession is nine-tenths of the law,” to mistakes about intellectual property rights. When you fall into the trap of letting these fables guide your decisions, you can get your business into trouble. So let’s dispel some of these legal myths.

Myth 1: Hey, I own that intellectual property. Misunderstandings about intellectual property ownership are rampant. Many businesspeople think if they register a new business with their home state, they automatically obtain trademark registration of their business’ name. No such luck. The trademark registration process is a completely independent process, and you don’t get any trademark registration rights just from setting up a new company.

Similarly, when businesses hire independent contractors to work on new ideas and inventions, companies often assume that they own the intellectual property created by the contractor. Wrong again. Unless you have a special agreement in place assigning the IP rights to your business, that contractor remains the owner of any copyright or patent associated with his or her work. (more…)

Protect Your Bargains

October 19, 2012

What to do when your partner won’t honor a contract

Every day in the business world, companies sign contracts, honor their part of the bargain and then discover that the other side isn’t living up to its end of deal. Most businesspeople enter into agreements assuming that the other party has the same intention and ability to honor the contract.

All too often, you learn – the hard way – that integrity and performance is a one-way street. But you can protect your bargains.

Due diligence

You should know with whom you’re doing business. Long-standing relationships can help, but they are not foolproof. One client just discovered that he had been doing business for a few years with someone who was recently indicted for serious crimes. (more…)

Jumpstarting Growth from The Legal Edge, SmartCEO Magazine

September 5, 2012
By Jack Garson

The JOBS Act promotes investments in small businesses

On April 5, 2012, the new Jumpstart Our Business Start-ups Act became law. The primary purpose of the JOBS Act is to reduce the legal burdens that small businesses face in raising capital.

With this new law, the pendulum has now swung once again toward deregulation, and rather quickly at that. In the wake of the Enron scandal and, later, the financial meltdown on Wall Street in 2008, Congress passed a variety of restrictions on the financial world. First the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and then the Dodd-Frank Act imposed new regulations, including burdensome disclosure requirements for publicly traded companies. These laws were layered on top of the securities acts passed in the 1930s, largely as a consequence of another couple of economic boo-boos: the stock market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression. (more…)

Keeping Your Inventory Management Up to Snuff

August 22, 2012

Maintaining inventory might just seem like an annoyance you tend to as supplies run low or customers order something obscure. But effective inventory management isn’t just a matter of knowing what’s in stock. It’s knowing what you have, why you have it and how long you’ll probably hold on to it.

To help you streamline the inventory management process and save money without sacrificing your customer experience, try following these guidelines for optimizing inventory management.

Track Inventory and Sales Daily. If you haven’t yet started taking thorough records, now is the time to start. All of your transactions must include some record of what inventory was required to complete the transaction. This may sound very easy for a retail storefront, but for, say, a restaurant where one transaction requires a few primary components and many others in small amounts, it can get difficult. (more…)