Want to Protect Your Business? Stand on This.

There are 3 kinds of risks: the risk that you’ll get screwed or sued; the risk that you’ll get in a fight and the risk that you’ll lose the fight. These risks are ever present. The only way to avoid these risks completely is to stay on your couch….

The Most Boring (And Important) Post You’ll Ever Read

There is a part of nearly every contract entitled “Notice.”  No one reads it, but everyone should. What is the Notice provision, how does it work and why does it matter? What is it? Every contract is its own little city-state. The language creates a set of rules about…

Tips to Avoid The Boss v Employee Fight Over LinkedIn, Twitter & Contact Lists

In the olden days, before everybody carried their contacts around in a giant database on a tiny phone, there were Rolodexes; Big, circular carousels of sheets to which you glued or stapled collected business cards. They weighed 37 pounds, took up half the desk and, as a result, they…

10 Great Things About an LLC

Here are the top ten things I love about the LLC.

Delaware? Don’t Do It.

Most people should not incorporate or organize their entity in Delaware. Now, I know that many advisers recommend organizing in Delaware and there are times when it is appropriate. Delaware has created and refined well-designed statutes and efficient, professional courts to make it easy, predictable and respectable to form…

Bow Truss v. The Profit: Better Than Reality TV

I’ve been following and writing about the Bow Truss v. Marcus Lemonis kerfuffle – now lawsuit – because messy litigation is my reality TV. And, this is messy. As a lawyer, my stock in trade is careful, calibrated elocutions of ambivalence. But, here, I’m not lawyering, I’m writing, so…

6 Contracts You Can’t Do Without

Contracts are the trip wire of deals. Here’s why. With legit business people, you can’t get started on the work or the payments until you sign the contract. Your contract is your reason to write down what has to get done, what has to get paid and by when….

5 Signs Your Business is Growing Too Fast: Lessons from Bow Truss Coffee

Crain’s Chicago recently reported that Bow Truss coffee houses, a hip café, temporarily closed its doors. Among the public feuds between the founder on one side and the employees on the other, Bow Truss is a cautionary tale on growing too quickly.  By all accounts, Bow Truss opened 10…

How I Know Your Business “Marriage” Ain’t Gonna Make It

In the midst of providing Business “Marriage” Counseling to two or more business partners, there is a moment when I have to predict a course. See, there are only a couple of paths we can take. People who come to me to work on their intra-company relationships have usually…

Business Partnership Lessons from the Bow Trust Deal Death

Last week, Crain’s reported that Brow Truss coffee houses had closed their doors. Left behind are dozens of employees with unpaid wages and one hysterical owner who is blaming the guy who backed away from buying him out. Marcus Lemonis, the star of MSNBC’s The Profit, had agreed to…