Business Planning
As every business owner knows, there’s an endless stream of challenges and conflicts that can and often do arise during the life of the business and, in turn, there are numerous opportunities to plan to avoid them. Business planning is the art and science of helping businesses at all stages of their life cycles, from the formation of new businesses, to operation of existing businesses, to planning for succession to the next generation and even exiting the business by way of a sale.
You’re a serious business owner so you’ll want to keep us intimately involved in the business. We bring to the table our hands-on experience in the trenches of forming and operating multiple businesses, and our attorneys are armed with business, tax and legal backgrounds. When you hire Haimo Law, you’re getting our team, and you’ll view us as a key investment in a valuable resource, from which you will receive regular advice, insight and guidance. We’ll help you tighten up your operation and think through decision-making from the lenses of legal rights and remedies, business fundamentals, operations, systems, efficiencies, economies of scale, software, etc. We are there for you every step of the way to help prevent problems and overcome and help resolve unavoidable challenges. That means minimizing court, costs and conflict and saving you time and money on distractions and disruptions so you can focus on operating the business.
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Business Planning
Below is a list of benefits of having a seasoned estate and business planning attorney on your business:
- Form the right entity for your needs, goals and vision
- Optimize structure for tax, mgmt, control, voting, growth, compensation, raising capital and flexibility
- Ensure clarity among partners regarding economic benefits, and disability, divorce, bankruptcy, death (buy-sell)
- Keep ownership to the partners (not spouses or creditors) with thoughtful transfer triggers and restrictions
- Minimize costly litigation with partners, employees, contractors and customers
- Minimize risk of key personnel revealing confidences, soliciting assets, competing or usurping business opportunities
- Advise on administration and formation of nonprofits entities
- Develop a tailored succession plan, which means your business future is secure.
- Integrate into your estate plan
- Protect intellectual property
- Insulate and isolate your assets from each other and you
- Take assets off the table from frivolous creditors’ claims
For a new business, we provide advice and counsel with respect to formation of the right entity. That can vary greatly depending on the type of business, the type of shareholders, and the founders’ needs, goals and vision for the business. Structure matters especially when there are investors, and if you want to customize managerial structure or key personnel compensation plans and strategies. Different entities have different tax consequences, flexibility and managerial structures. There are no one-size-fits-all type decisions when it comes to entity formation, as each one has its own advantages and disadvantages.
For existing businesses, starting from the top of the organization, we ensure that the agreement among the partners are tightened up, well thought out and memorialized in writing. In those documents, we address management, control, allocations of profits and losses, distribution and liquidation preferences, transfers of interests, and dealing with the death, divorce, bankruptcy and disability of the partners. Similarly, moving vertically down in the organization, we help ensure that key personnel have solid agreements to protect the company, confidences, trade secrets, intellectual property, and prevent people from competing and soliciting the company’s assets, people, customers, vendors, and the like. We also help tighten up relations and agreements with customers, which is something that is commonly overlooked by business owners. Forcing a review of these agreements creates opportunities to improve and optimize the business model and limit exposure to unnecessary risk.
As it relates to the company itself, we prepare, review and negotiate contracts of all kinds and with all parties, like leases, purchase orders and non-disclosure agreements. We ensure that you are developing, protecting and enforcing your intellectual property rights and your hard-earned assets of the business by thinking strategically and working with the right professionals.
When conflict inevitably arises to whatever degree, we provide advice and counsel on how to best navigate those challenges, engage them directly and also work with outside counsel to resolve them economically
At the tail-end of a successful business, the founders often want to maintain their cash flow, downshift their involvement and ultimately – but thoughtfully – transition ownership and control of the business to the next generation, whether that’s family or third parties like key personnel. In either case we help with that business succession plan by working with key professionals like CPAs and financial advisors in order to ensure that all bases are covered. Lastly, at any time there’s a purchase or sale of the business or assets of the business, we provide advice and counsel regarding that transaction from start to finish, including drafting, reviewing and negotiating terms and agreements as well engaging in due diligence.
The bottom line is that we have a lot of experience in supporting and protecting business and we love it! We’re excited to help you on your journey regardless of what stage of business you’re in. We’ll help you minimize court, costs and conflict. We’ll help you tighten up your operation, protect and defend the business and its assets and maximize profitability. Contact us to get started building and protecting your business today.
