27 Dec Hey, Entrepreneurs: Don’t Forget Your Business Lawyer
New entrepreneurs are a plucky bunch with an admirable but ultimately counterproductive tendency for trying to do too much themselves. Sometimes it’s pure drive, sometimes it’s bootstrapping, sometimes it’s difficulty trusting others, sometimes it’s not knowing the right person to call, and sometimes it’s a mixed bag of reasons.
But we’re not here to psychoanalyze you or get the bottom of your motivations. At least not today.
Today, we just want to pass on an important piece of advice to those of you new to starting or running a business: consult a business transactions attorney about all legal issues.
Assuming you won’t have an in-house legal department, or at least a few lawyers chained up in the basement, a lot can go wrong in the absence of outside expert legal counsel. Attempting to tackle matters of legality on your own is shortsighted, leaving you vulnerable to a potential onslaught of hassles, lawsuits, and unforeseen expenses.
Always consult a business lawyer about the following:
- Business entity formation and structuring (LLC, S Corp, C Corp, etc.)
- Creating and signing contracts with investors, partners, employees, independent contractors, vendors, clients or customers, and anyone else
- Drafting online agreements, terms of use, privacy policies, and other website details
- Protecting intellectual property
- Licensing and permitting requirements
- Compliance with consumer protection, hiring, environmental, zoning, and other relevant laws
- Mergers and acquisitions
- International import and export
And now, for something we don’t usually do here, we’ll wrap this up with a plug. If you’re in Central Florida and in the market for a business law firm, we recommend getting in touch with our friends at Krumbein Law in Orlando.
