If you’ve decided to start a business, you likely already know that you’ll need a good lawyer to make sure you dot every “i” and cross every “t,” because this is the smartest way to make sure you don’t miss anything in the beginning. Experts at business law help you with a variety of tasks that you must complete before you accept your first client or customer, and below are six things a good business attorney can do for you.
1. Help You Decide on the Right Business Structure
There are many types of business structures, and the right attorney can help you determine which one is right for you. These include sole proprietorship, limited liability company, general partnership, limited partnership, and nonprofit corporation. The decision you make will affect how the business is managed and even how you pay your taxes, making this one very important decision.
2. Help You Determine Your Bylaws and Operating Agreement
You have to have the right operating agreement and bylaws so that you can determine how shares of stock will be issued, when your shareholder meetings will be held, and even how basic decisions will be made. It directly affects many parts of the day-to-day running of your business and, therefore, your business law attorney is going to help you with decisions that can affect your business from day one.
3. Help You Decide on the Types of Contracts You Need
Let’s face it, your business is going to need a lot of paperwork and documents, and the right attorney will make sure that contracts, along with other papers, are written up correctly and that all appropriate signatures are included in them. There will be a lot of contracts along the way, but the right business lawyer will make sure they are executed properly and that nothing important is left out. You may be interested in Hoffer Adler if you want more information.
4. Help You Choose the Right Name for Your Business
Although you may not have thought much about what to name your business, the fact is that this is a decision not to be taken lightly. A good business attorney will help you pick out the perfect name, which is also going to depend on the type of structure you’ve set up beforehand.
5. Help You Determine How to Protect Intellectual Property (IP)
As a business owner it is important to protect all of your logos, slogans, and even the packaging on your products, which is where a good business law expert comes in. They can help you with copyright protection, trademark registration, and patents for any inventions you may have, which can avoid a lot of headaches and costly legal work in the future.
6. Help You Reduce the Risks to Your Employees
The right business attorney helps you develop ways to minimize the risk to employees so that no laws are broken and so everyone will be familiar enough with the law to make sure everything is done correctly. They can even help you develop policies and procedures so that these laws are not broken inadvertently, which can save you a lot of time and money from then on.
