Why a lawyer?
We give you way more than giving you forms to fill out yourself. First, we meet and find out:
- what you – whether as a sole owner or a group of partners – want to accomplish
- your business model – that is, how your business will make money
- the time frame for reaching your goals
- the possibilities of and requirements for outside investment
- the actual way you want to make decisions in the business
- your preferred tax treatment of income
- what you want to happen in the event of your disability, death, or other expected change of circumstance
- and important other issues.
Taking the time up front to discuss and resolve these matters helps give you the roadmap to know what to expect as your business develops.
Keeping track of important company decisions is also quite important. Particularly in a group ownership setting, written minutes keep everyone on the same page – they track corporate decisions and record the situation at the time and the decisions actually made – rather than relying on memory several months or even years later. This minimizes second-guessing or even worse – accusations of misconduct.
This is important even for sole owners – showing that you keep your business affairs separate from your personal affairs. Any outside investor or lender will want to review these corporate records before deciding whether to underwrite your enterprise, as would a potential buyer of the business. And the IRS could want to see them in certain situations as well. We have first-hand experience working in start-ups, which we bring to the fore, enabling us to have a full perspective for what is needed
Typical services include:
- Company formation, including Certificate of Formation, Company Agreement or Bylaws, organizational resolutions, initial organization of company record book, and the like
- Negotiation and preparation of partnership agreement, shareholders agreement, buy-sell agreement, IP license, and the like
- Advice on various forms of entities, such as corporation, limited liability company or LLC, partnership, limited partnership, limited liability partnership, and the like
- Initial advice on tax treatment of various entities, such as disregarded entity, partnership, S-Corp, and C-Corp
- Advice regarding proper conduct of company affairs and keeping track of company decisions through minutes and notes, often called Company Secretarial duties
- Advice on business model – that is, how you plan to make money and whether it makes sense