Small Business Q & A: Starting Your Business By The Book

Written by Tim Knox


I've gotten several questions recently aboutrepparttar legalities of starting a business. So, this week I thought I would address a few ofrepparttar 104833 more common legal issues most new businesses face. But first, let's getrepparttar 104834 mandatory legal disclaimer out ofrepparttar 104835 way:repparttar 104836 advice dispensed by this columnist is probably no better or worse thanrepparttar 104837 advice dispensed by other columnists. Do not takerepparttar 104838 following advice as gospel or betrepparttar 104839 future of your business on any advice given herein by said columnist.

Agreed? Good, let's proceed.

To begin, here'srepparttar 104840 best legal advice I can give you as a new business person: find yourself a good lawyer and make him or her your very best friend. Granted, your new best friend will charge you an hourly fee for chatting onrepparttar 104841 phone or talking business over lunch, but you'll find it to be money well spent. A good attorney can save you far more thanrepparttar 104842 cost of his services. I rarely make any decision that hasrepparttar 104843 potential to impact my business without first consulting my attorney.

You can locate an attorney through legal referral services or just by openingrepparttar 104844 phone book, butrepparttar 104845 best way to find a really good attorney is to ask other business owners for references.

You want an attorney who specializes in business matters. A few ofrepparttar 104846 things you may need legal help with are: legal business formation, articles of incorporation, trademarks and copyrights, investment documents, employee policies, etc. You may find that a single attorney can't meet all your needs, but if you use a larger firm they will have attorneys on staff that can providerepparttar 104847 specialized services you require.

Now, let's take a brief look at a few questions I've received regardingrepparttar 104848 legalities of starting a new business.

What's a DBA? "DBA" stands for "doing business as." A DBA is another name that you use inrepparttar 104849 operation of your business other thanrepparttar 104850 legal name. For example, "Jones, Inc." might berepparttar 104851 legal corporate name of your business, but you might use "Bob Jones Landscaping" asrepparttar 104852 everyday business name. In this case, you would seerepparttar 104853 business described in legal context as "Jones, Inc. Doing Business As Bob Jones Landscaping."

Here's an example of using a DBA to launch a new venture within an existing business. A reader asked: "My wife incorporated a multimedia business three years ago, and I am starting a voice-over business. Is it more beneficial for me to open as a sole proprietorship or to operate within her multimedia business?"

My answer was that he should open his company as a division of his wife's business, operating as a DBA. Even though he is using his own business name (the DBA), technically his wife's corporation is launchingrepparttar 104854 service and therefore will give him some liability protection. Doing so would also help him save on start-up costs (such as having to pay for a separate incorporation). It's relatively simple to keep a separate set of books, and whenrepparttar 104855 new business takes off, he can spin it off into a separate entity.

Small Business Q & A: How To Handle The Occasional Oop-See!

Written by Tim Knox


Q: My company is really in hot water with one of our best customers. I can't reveal exactly what happened, but suffice it to say that we really droppedrepparttar ball andrepparttar 104832 customer is furious. I'm not even sure we can saverepparttar 104833 account. What'srepparttar 104834 best way to get back in a customer's good graces after making such a mistake? -- Charles W.

A: Without knowingrepparttar 104835 full story, Charles, I can't give you a specific course of action, but let's start atrepparttar 104836 sharp end ofrepparttar 104837 uh-oh stick and work our way back to see if we can come with up some advice that might help.

First off, it's important that you understand thatrepparttar 104838 magnitude of your mistake will determinerepparttar 104839 course of action you take to make amends. If your company's error was such that it caused your customer a significant amount of lost time or revenue, embarrassed them publicly, caused damage to their reputation, or otherwise negatively affected their bottom line, you may face legal repercussions that saying "I'm sorry" will not deter. If that'srepparttar 104840 case you should consult an attorney immediately and prepare forrepparttar 104841 worst. Whether or notrepparttar 104842 worst comes is irrelevant. You must be prepared for it.

Now on to dealing with more minor offenses. As anyone who has read this column for any length of time knows, I'm cursed with daughters. I used to say I was blessed with daughters, then they learned to walk and talk. Blessed quickly became cursed. Now my oldest daughter is an inch taller than me and getting all lumpy in places I'd rather not think about. She's a sad case, really. The poor kid needs an operation. She has a cellphone growing out of her ear. But I digress…

When she was a toddler she coinedrepparttar 104843 phrase, "Oop-see!" Whenever she did something innocently destructive, like knock over a glass of orange juice on my new computer keyboard or shove a Pop Tart inrepparttar 104844 VCR tape slot, she would look at me with her huge brown eyes and say, "Oop-see!" My wife says there is a reason God made kids cute. Oop-see moments are evidence that she is right.

Oop-see meant, "Uh oh, I didn't mean to do that. I was wrong. I'll never do that again. Forgive me? Love me? Buy me toys… Oop-see worked like a charm every time. Now, I certainly don't expect you to bat your eyes at your customer and say, "Oop-see!" but considerrepparttar 104845 effect her words had on me. Instead of screaming atrepparttar 104846 top of my lungs like I wanted to do (hey, have you ever tried to dig a Pop Tart out of a VCR) I immediately softened and found myself actually taking her side. "Aw, it's OK, really, we all make mistakes…"

What my daughter had figured out is that it's hard to stay mad at someone who admits a mistake, sincerely apologizes for it, and vows never to let it happen again. Little did I know this was only one of many tactics she would employ overrepparttar 104847 years in her never-ending quest to wrap her daddy several times around her little finger, but that's a whole different column.

Dale Carnegie said it best: "Any fool can try to defend his or her mistakes - and most fools do - but it raises one aboverepparttar 104848 herd and gives one a feeling of nobility and exultation to admit one's mistakes."

Carnegie and my daughter were basically sayingrepparttar 104849 same thing: When you (or your company) make a mistake, no matter how large or small,repparttar 104850 best thing you can do is quickly admitrepparttar 104851 error of your ways and facerepparttar 104852 consequences, come what may.

Here are a few things you can do to help set things right with your customer.

Assemblerepparttar 104853 facts. The very first thing you should do is find out what went wrong and why. Meet with your key people and gatherrepparttar 104854 facts. Ask specific questions like: What wasrepparttar 104855 mistake? What caused it? Who was involved? What could have been done to preventrepparttar 104856 mistake from happening and what can be done to prevent it from happening again inrepparttar 104857 future.

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