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Starting a Business? Why You Need to Know the Legal Stuff

admin — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 22:19:06 +0000

Starting a Business? Why You Need to Know the Legal Stuff

Legal issues abound in business at every turn. From organizing with the state at startup to litigating employment issues to closing the doors, the legal ramifications of every decision matter. Most startup experts recommend retaining a competent attorney as a first step in starting a business. This is good advice, but simply turning over all responsibility to an attorney is unwise at best, devastating at worst.

Organizing Your Business
Most businesses should be organized as either an LLC or corporation. The best choice will depend on who you ask for advice as much as your own particular situation. That is, it is very common for accountants to recommend corporations and attorneys to recommend LLCs, regardless of the specifics of the venture. In fact, there are very clear arguments for one over the other, and it is the entrepreneur’s responsibility to make the best choice for their circumstances. Don’t leave the decision to outsiders, learn the fundamentals of each entity type and make the decision for yourself.

Write Your Operating Agreement
All businesses should formalize an operating agreement that covers the basic rules and regulations of the venture. If the entrepreneurs are entering a partnership, the details are even more important. Many a small business has crashed and burned at the hands of an absent, incomplete or misunderstood partnership agreement. Again, leaving the details to an outsider, attorney or otherwise, is just plain crazy. It is your business and you need to decide how you want to manage it. What if your partner dies? Or becomes a compulsive gambler? Or just quits? The “standard form” that many small businesses end up with does not necessarily deal with unplanned events in the best way for your situation, so it is critical to work through the legalities of setting up your business yourself.

Contracts are King
Contracts are an everyday part of most businesses as well. Some entrepreneurs pay an attorney to review contracts, perhaps even write them, in order to protect themselves. Unfortunately, they still often have no idea what the various clauses mean…and more importantly what they will mean if something goes awry. Waiting until the business is sued, or you need to sue somebody else, to understand what is in the contract is a major, but common error. Again, it’s your business and you need to be more than familiar with every aspect of it.

Employment Law
The most confusing and potentially devastating area of law for entrepreneurs is employment law. Unless you are very familiar with the federal and state laws that apply to your employees, it can be very easy to run afoul and end up in serious trouble. From recruiting and hiring to evaluations and terminations, there are significant regulations that affect what employers can do and how they can get it done. In addition, employment taxes cause all sorts of troubles, especially for first-time, inexperienced employers. The fundamentals of becoming an employer should be understood long before the first hire, and should not be left to chance.

None of the legal issues in business are particularly complicated, but all can be devastating if not appropriately handled. Hire an attorney if it’s in your budget, but also put in the time and energy to understand your legal responsibilities in every aspect of your venture.

Kehr Law provides our clients with a single resource to address a wide variety of legal concerns present throughout every stage of life. Kehr Law takes pride in achieving unparalleled success for our clients by providing first class legal service and representation, through accessible, personalized service and technologically advanced resources. We provide our clients with tenacious, yet cost-effective legal representation. Our innovative fee arrangements and payment plans allow our clients to surpass their goals in a financially prudent and expeditious manner. Through honesty, integrity, ethics, and on our unrelenting drive to attain perfection, we seek to return the legal field to the “helping-profession” for which it was originally venerated. Our global network of professionals, advisors and consultants enables Kehr Law to meet and exceed our client’s expectations. We provide our clients with the necessary framework enabling them to operate with confidence, stability, and a high-degree of predictability.

For additional information about our Kehr Law, our practice areas, or our services please contact us by telephone at (619) 400-4942 or via email at dan@kehrlaw.com.

KEHR LAW
501 W. Broadway
Suite 800
San Diego, CA 92101
Office: (619) 400-4942
Fax: (619) 400-4952
Cell: (619) 823-8230
Email: dan@kehrlaw.com & dan@dankehr.com
Website: http://www.kehrlaw.com

About the Author
K. MacKillop, a serial entrepreneur with a J.D. from Duke University, is co-founder of LaunchX and authors a blog focused on starting a business. Visit LaunchX.com to learn more about the LaunchX System, a complete business startup kit that helps you learn the business basics while starting a business.

Starting a Business? Why You Need to Know Marketing

admin — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 22:16:08 +0000

Starting a Business? Why You Need to Know Marketing

Every business owner engages in a mix of advertising and marketing methods to varying degrees of success. Unfortunately, most do not understand marketing well enough to make the best, most cost-effective decisions or to evaluate the numerous opportunities available for reaching their market. Effective marketing is far more than simply placing an ad in the Yellow Pages. It requires a comprehensive knowledge of the industry, competitors, and target markets along with a willingness to track and evaluate every marketing dollar.

Most entrepreneurs have an intellectual understanding about the importance of marketing. Obviously, this is how you introduce your product, attract customers, and grow your sales. But the details of how marketing actually works, when it works, are often elusive. The result is often a mixed bag of convenient advertising and light networking and luck…not exactly a formula for guaranteed success.

Scout the Competition
Before you can define an effective marketing plan for your venture, a good amount of research must be done. You need to thoroughly scout the competition. If you can’t find any direct or indirect competitors then you have one of two problems — your research is incomplete or there actually is no market for your idea. Checking out the competition will provide insight into the methods and messages that seem to work…and those that do not. In addition, you will be able to clearly articulate the benefits of your product over the alternatives, a message that will become the core of your best marketing messages.

Understand Your Target Market
Second, you need to know all you can about the people most likely (and even possibly likely) to buy your product. The more you know about where they go, what they do, and how else they spend their money, the easier it will be to find a way to reach them. This information is critical for your primary target customers, but also important for minor market segments. That is, if your primary target market consists of cubicle workers, home office workers may also be a viable target. Although there are far fewer home office workers, a focused marketing effort toward those individuals could increase sales dramatically. But the only way to reach them is to know how and where to find them.

Plan the Best Route to Your Customer
Once you know where your business stands in the industry and who your customers are, you need to find the best marketing routes for getting your business out there. There are a number of marketing routes beyond advertising that can be effective for most types of businesses including direct sales, sales promotions, and public relations. Even within the topic of advertising there are an enormous number of options that should be investigated before the first marketing dollar is spent.

The advent of the internet has made marketing both easier and more difficult all at once. While there are dozens of new platforms available for advertising and getting the word out, there is also a volume of marketing messages bombarding consumers like never before. There is a wealth of knowledge an entrepreneur should possess to effectively use the opportunities available online, from the most basic website to social marketing to pop up ads. Without a fundamental understanding of what is available and the effectiveness of those options, it is very easy to waste hundreds to thousands of dollars on useless marketing efforts.

Have a Well-Developed Marketing Plan
A well-developed marketing plan will incorporate a number of different methods, with each selected to meet a specific marketing objective. In addition, each marketing effort should include a clear evaluation procedure such that you are able to analyze the bottom line outcome of every dollar spent on marketing.

Before you can develop an effective, cost-conscious marketing plan, you have to know the basics of marketing, from researching your standing in the marketplace to evaluating the best advertising opportunities. Above all, need to understand how it all works so you can evaluate the efficacy of your marketing program. A huge chunk of your venture’s cash will be spent on marketing, so developing the knowledge to make the right decisions is just common sense.

For additional information about our Kehr Law, our practice areas, or our services please visit us at www.kehrlaw.com or contact us by telephone at (619) 400-4942 or via email at dan@kehrlaw.com.

Starting a Business? Why You Need to Know Accounting

admin — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 22:14:52 +0000

Starting a Business? Why You Need to Know Accounting

Accounting is one the most commonly outsourced competencies in small business. Busy entrepreneurs either don’t want to spend the time or aren’t confident in handling the books and decide it is easier to have an in-house bookkeeper or professional accountant in charge. It is also very common for these same entrepreneurs to pay dearly for that decision.

Accounting is the function that records the financial history of the business. Managed correctly, it provides an accurate record of money in and money out, such that it is easy to identify many internal problems through the financial reports produced by these records. Managed incorrectly, it is a waste of time, a misleading mess of false information, and potentially the difference between the ultimate success or failure of the organization.

Like any other profession, there are certainly tricks of the accounting trade that are best managed by, well, the professionals. But the fundamentals of accounting should be familiar to every entrepreneur. The way your books are set up and the accounts that are used to track income and expenses should be well known to the business owner, such that you could take over the tasks if necessary (or at least train a new bookkeeper).

The position of bookkeeper in a small business is the number one opportunity for embezzlement…and don’t assume that just because your bookkeeper is “like family” that they won’t rip you off. It happens all the time. There are a million reasons that people skim cash from their workplace, and not all of those folks are hardened criminals. The best way to avoid any potential of employees or contractors stealing from you is to understand what is going on with your accounting system. Embezzlement is far easier for an employee or outsource professional who holds all the cards…don’t let someone else set up and manage your books on their own. At an absolute minimum, sit side-by-side with your bookkeeper or accountant while the accounts are established and make sure you absolutely understand every line.

In addition, accounting must be completely accurate to be useful. In many cases, business owners rely on periodic financial reports from the bookkeeper to assess the health of the venture. However, if the books are not kept correctly (all entries correctly assigned to appropriate categories, entries checked for accuracy), the reports are completely useless. And, should you need to secure second round financing, you could spend up to thousands of dollars to hire an accountant to clean up the books before a bank will even talk to you.

There are all kinds of horror stories that start with the business owner relinquishing all responsibility for their own accounting system. Embezzlement is a common one, as are tax problems and employee issues. One business owner in Chicago learned the hard way not to trust others with every detail of his accounting system. After 13 years in business, his home theater installation venture was growing at a steady pace. When the recession hit, the owner reviewed his financial statements and was confident the company would weather the economy.

Unfortunately, the professional, national, accounting firm he hired had classified his future contract sales as current sales…so when people started to cancel their orders, the company was in a serious cash crunch. Had the owner understood that the income category reflected money that was not actually in the bank, he likely could have taken steps to handle the reduction in work. Instead, he relied on the accountant’s reports until it was too late. He was forced to let his staff of 20+ go…some without their final paychecks. He lost his business, he lost his house, and he learned a painful lesson. Had he taken the time to at least assist in setting up the company’s accounting system at the start, there would have been no confusion as to what the numbers on the report actually meant.

Though many entrepreneurs are eager to dump those pesky accounting tasks off to a bookkeeper as early as possible in the startup process, it is a mistake that can turn in to a venture-closing devastation. Protect your future and keep control over your business by learning the basics of your accounting system from the start.

For additional information about our Kehr Law, our practice areas, or our services please visit us at www.kehrlaw.com or contact us by telephone at (619) 400-4942 or via email at dan@kehrlaw.com.

Starting a Business? Why You Need to Know Operations

admin — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 22:13:58 +0000

Starting a Business? Why You Need to Know Operations

While it is true that an astute entrepreneur can be successful in just about any type of business, that doesn’t excuse any owner from mastering the details of the venture’s operations. The operations are what exactly the business does — restaurants cook and serve specific types of food, consultants help businesses improve a specific area, retail stores sell specific lines of product — and how that work gets done. Clearly understanding the day-to-day operations is critical to leading any business to success.

Obviously, different types of businesses have very different operations. In similar types of businesses, such as restaurants, clothing stores, dog training outfits, or whatever, the top level of operations tend to be very similar, such that the basic route of product development to delivery are pretty much the same. Hence, it makes sense to hire managers and employees with experience within the same industry, even if that experience is not exact. Still, within any industry, the details of operations can vary widely. That is, the general work to be done may be very similar, but how the work gets done can be very different from business to business.

The details of operations can be the factor that sets one business apart from another. Entrepreneurial innovation isn’t always inventing the latest hi-tech gadget. In fact, most innovation occurs in the operations of common business. For example, video rental has been around for several decades, but Netflix changed the way the product is delivered dramatically…and is overwhelmingly successful because of it. Entrepreneurs pushed distributors to develop just-in-time options for ordering and delivering inventory and are generally at the forefront of improving efficiency and productivity in all industries. But those innovations cannot occur unless the person in charge understands the ins and outs of the standard operations of their industry and business.

Aside from years of experience in an industry, the best way to understand the operations is to actually do the job, even for a little while. In some cases, working a short time in a similar business coupled with a good amount of research is enough. If there is not enough time (or opportunity) to actually work in the field your startup is in, the next best option is to hire an expert. Use networking contacts to gather referrals, whether for employees or consultants, to help you establish the operations portion of your business. Of course, it is never a good idea to completely hand over any portion of your business to an outsider, so it may be beneficial to bring on an expert as a partner.

If working with a partner is not in your plans, you will need to work your startup budget to include the expertise you will need to master the operations. Whether you choose to hire a permanent employee or a temporary consultant, the critical factor is that you take the time to learn the operations yourself. Then, use your knowledge (and your expert) to develop comprehensive SOPs — Standard Operating Procedures — that will be followed by everyone in the company. Once the SOPs are developed and functional, it is far easier to identify opportunities for increased efficiency in each step of the business process.

Developing SOPs early in the life of your venture will also establish a key point in successful cultures — that there is a right way to do things and everyone is expected to work the same way. In addition, it is important to allow employees the opportunity to contribute ideas for improving efficiency, as well as a process for evaluating, and perhaps testing, those ideas. Creating a culture of attention to the details of operations is important to the success of any small business, and failure to acknowledge the importance of operations is a sure road to business failure.

Knowing the operations is an absolute necessity for most entrepreneurs. Relying solely on an experienced employee is dangerous — what happens when they quit? Unless the expert is a full partner in the day-to-day of the business, you will need to put in the time and effort to master whatever it is your venture does. And, formalizing the operations into SOPs will create consistency and commitment in the company culture. From there, every bit of improved efficiency goes directly to the bottom line, but the only way to make the right decisions is to understand your business’s operations, inside and out.

For additional information about our Kehr Law, our practice areas, or our services please visit us at www.kehrlaw.com or contact us by telephone at (619) 400-4942 or via email at dan@kehrlaw.com.

Starting a Business? Why You Need to Know the Basics of Business

admin — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 22:05:09 +0000

Starting a Business? Why You Need to Know the Basics of Business
Entrepreneurship is the Holy Grail of the American independent spirit. Working for yourself is the best (and for most of us, the only) way to take control of your work life and financial future. A good idea, an untapped market, and a lot of work can take you from a workaday lifestyle to a captain of industry. But first, it is critical to master not only the operations of your idea but also the fundamentals that apply to any and every successful venture.
There is a popular notion that, as long as you are an expert in the field of your idea, then all other aspects of the business can be conveniently outsourced to other professionals. An accountant can handle all the books and taxes, an attorney can deal with all things legal, a marketing company can manage the advertising, and an IT guy can work with the pesky internet stuff. Unfortunately, many entrepreneurs learn the hard way that, as the owner, they are ultimately responsible for every facet of the venture, whether they personally handle the day-to-day or not.
On the other hand, the most successful serial entrepreneurs are able to find success in a variety of industries. By applying the fundamentals of business to just about any business idea, they manage to turn all sorts of ideas into profitable companies. Still, it is dangerous even for those business savants to assume the business side is all that matters. Going in to a field without experience results in a long learning curve, but one that is easier to fill with an expert than the rest.
The best option to ensure the long-term success of the organization is for the person in charge to understand every relevant competency from the start. This series of articles is designed to explain why you need to understand each area of your business from the beginning…and what can happen if you don’t. The areas discussed are:
• Operations: What your venture actually does
• Accounting: The financial history of your business
• Financial Planning: The financial future of your company
• Business Planning: If you don’t know where you are going, it doesn’t matter which path you take
• Marketing: One of the easiest ways to waste money
• Networking: It’s not what you know, it’s who you know
• Customer Management: Knowing all you can about the people who buy from you
• Technology: Using technology, including online resources, to build your business
• Legal Issues: Hire a lawyer, but know what they are doing
If you are planning to launch a business in 2010, get to work on the basics right away. None of these areas is particularly difficult to understand, but you need to know the fundamentals in order to effectively lead your company. This isn’t to say you should actually do everything yourself, in fact you probably should not. But when you choose to outsource the day-to-day tasks in some of these areas, you will be confident in selecting the right professional and monitoring their work. The startup is your business, and the full responsibility of everything that happens with it belongs to you.
About the Author: K. MacKillop, a serial entrepreneur with a J.D. from Duke University, is co-founder of LaunchX and authors a blog focused on starting a business. Visit LaunchX.com to learn more about the LaunchX System, a complete business startup kit that helps you learn the business basics while starting a business.

For additional information about our Kehr Law, our practice areas, or our services please visit us at www.kehrlaw.com or contact us by telephone at (619) 400-4942 or via email at dan@kehrlaw.com.

Being a Successful Entrepreneur — Balancing Personalities

admin — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 22:02:41 +0000

Being a Successful Entrepreneur — Balancing Personalities

Entrepreneurship is all about balance. From allocating your time and energy effectively to managing different types of employees, one of the toughest parts of being in charge of everything is striking the right chord to keep things moving smoothly, efficiently, and in the right direction. The solution often lies in the entrepreneur’s own ability to recognize and balance the conflicting perspectives that drive their own decisions.

There are three fundamental, but conflicting, personalities that in some mix drive most individuals. They are the entrepreneurial view of always looking forward, the manager view of always looking back, and the technical perspective of only dealing with what is happening in the present. Most people excel in one area, may have some balance among two, but rarely have a good handle on balancing all three. That balance is an absolute necessity to develop and grow any type of business.

As it turns out, most people who take the plunge tend toward the entrepreneur personality, with big visions of where the business idea can go and the big picture of what they want to do. This is often relatively well balanced with one or the other of management skills or technical skills. That is, some entrepreneurs also have a good grasp on how to manage a business in general, by reviewing financial reports, implementing the most effective marketing techniques, and the like. Others know the technical, or operational, aspects of their business idea inside and out. Less common, but still an issue, are those entrepreneurs with a knack for the technical and basic business management, but an inability to see the opportunities or threats on the horizon. An important piece is missing in each of these mixes.

It often happens, however, that individuals fail to see the value in opposing personalities. They put their business at risk by depending on only their own perspective. The big thinker often misses danger signs that can be identified through analytical review of past performance. Managers, in their zeal to fix those past problems or issues, often fail to see how certain changes affect the day-to-day operations of the business. Technicians are often so focused on what is happening today that they allow small problems to grow out of control and they are unprepared to handle the opportunities and threats as they come along.

Developing the manager and technician sides of your personality simply requires some time and effort. Management basics can be learned from experience, education, or even using management training products. Learning the technical side of a certain business is similar. If there is an opportunity to work within an industry before you go out on your own…do it! Otherwise, taking a learn-as-you-go approach can work, too, as long as you are staying abreast of innovations and efficiencies within the industry. Mastering the big picture perspective can be more difficult for those without an inherent entrepreneurial personality, but is definitely possible. Spend some time with entrepreneurial types, talk with them about your business ideas, and take note of their responses. When you have that lightbulb moment (Why didn’t I think of that?), you are on your way to developing your own big picture skills.

Entrepreneurs across all industries must find a way to balance the conflicting personalities required to succeed. For those that are acutely self-aware, the job is easier. If, for example, an entrepreneur knows that they are just not good with the details, they can find a business partner or key employee to bolster the influence of the manager or technician perspective. The key is to know thyself, work on your weaker aspects, and accept the ideas of another, sometimes conflicting, perspective in order to reach the best decisions for the venture.

About the Author
K. MacKillop, a serial entrepreneur with a J.D. from Duke University, is co-founder of LaunchX and authors a blog focused on starting a business. The LaunchX System will help you start a business, no matter your business personality. It contains step-by-step instructions, key small business software, management tools and more to help you be up, running, and making money as quickly as possible. Start a business today using the LaunchX System.

For additional information about our Kehr Law, our practice areas, or our services please visit us at www.kehrlaw.com or contact us by telephone at (619) 400-4942 or via email at dan@kehrlaw.com.

Four Things to Consider Before Starting a Business

admin — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 21:58:35 +0000

Four Things to Consider Before Starting a Business

More and more working-age Americans are looking to take control of their worklife by launching their own business. Going out on your own is a big change and even bigger commitment. Before you take the plunge, think through the following:

1. Lifestyle Priorities
Working for yourself usually means sacrificing your time, cash, and energy for the foreseeable future. But that is not always the case! In fact, if your reasons for starting your own business are autonomy and flexibility in your schedule, there are plenty of viable business ideas that can meet those objectives. The trade-off is that you may not get rich, ever, but you can find yourself with plenty of time to enjoy hobbies or family or whatever else you would rather spend your time on. If you are willing to work 60+ hours per week on a regular basis, be sure the industry you choose will hold your attention and interest…there is nothing worse than being stuck in a job you can’t stand, even if you created that job yourself.

2. Money
For most entrepreneurs, money is the bottom line. They want to make more and keep more, or they don’t have any available to get their business off the ground. First, you do need money to make money. There are a million ways to bootstrap a startup that will keep a tight lid on expenses, but there are still expenses. You need at least a few thousand on hand, no matter what type of business you start — more if you will need inventory or a commercial location or employees or….whatever.

Second, you need to know the bare minimum income you are willing to survive on, and for how long, before you pick a business idea. Very few business opportunities produce an immediate, high-end income, and those that do are most effective when the entrepreneur is already an expert in the industry (thus, you would already know the type of business you want to start and have a good idea of how the numbers should look). Set high income goals for yourself, but prepare for realistically taking some time to reach them.

3. Knowledge and Skills
Do not underestimate the importance of knowing the basics of business in general and your industry in particular. All the passion and motivation in the world doesn’t replace the fundamentals. In addition, it is important to choose a business idea that fits your personal work style — if you prefer to be around people, do not choose a business that leaves you stuck behind a computer all day. Evaluate your previous education, skills, and experience to identify areas that are lacking, and seek out products or opportunities to build those fundamentals.

4. Business Ideas
Take the time to look in to several business ideas before jumping in. Check out the competition, and remember that the existence of competitors does not necessarily mean that your great idea is off limits because it’s already taken. In fact, similar businesses that are doing well are an indication that there is a market for your idea. Be flexible with your options. Let the research you conduct guide your final business ideas — the most successful startups are often very different from the original idea. And, considering multiple opportunities will allow you to choose the one that best fits your own lifestyle priorities.

These four areas are really just the beginning, but it is essential to think through what it means to go out on your own before committing any time, cash, or effort. Be realistic about how much you are willing to compromise and sacrifice to reach your goals. If you find that your initial business ideas won’t fit your desires or resources, keep looking! There are thousands (at least) of viable business ideas out there, and you will find the best one for you.

About the Author
K. MacKillop, a serial entrepreneur with a J.D. from Duke University, is co-founder of LaunchX and authors a blog focused on starting a business. The LaunchX System for Business Startup is a complete kit that helps you consider your lifestyle, money, knowledge & skills, and ideas as you plan to start a business. Visit LaunchX.com and let us help you start a business successfully today.

For additional information about our Kehr Law, our practice areas, or our services please contact us by telephone at (619) 400-4942 or via email at dan@kehrlaw.com.

KEHR LAW
501 W. Broadway
Suite 800
San Diego, CA 92101
Office: (619) 400-4942
Fax: (619) 400-4952
Cell: (619) 823-8230
Email: dan@kehrlaw.com & dan@dankehr.com
Website: http://www.kehrlaw.com

Before You Choose a Business to Start, Know Your Priorities

admin — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 21:34:21 +0000

Before You Choose a Business to Start, Know Your Priorities

The big question for most people hoping to work for themselves is “What’s the best business for me to start?” There are many right answers to this question, depending on your own circumstances and desires. Before you even begin to select the right business idea, it is critical to define exactly why you are going out on your own. These reasons will make some business types better than others, and will eliminate some completely.

The primary factors to consider first are time, money, and work, and what you are looking for in terms of self-employment. For some, the idea of having more time to do other things is more important than how much they make. For others, putting in ridiculous hours of work is worth it if the payoff is there. It is important to be realistic — there is NO startup that will make you rich this year while you spend your days golfing. There just isn’t.

What Are Your Priorities?
As a first step, write out what you want your life to look like once your business is off the ground. If you are having trouble, try describing a typical week — when you will work, what else you will do, and the like. Review this vision to identify what you will need to get there. Is a high income necessary or will less do for you? Can you commit 60+ hours per week, every week, to a business without burning out? Should your work schedule be flexible or set? Decide which areas are absolute musts and which you might be willing to compromise. This may seem pedantic, but it is absolutely critical to know what you want out of working for yourself.

Which Businesses Fit Your Priorities?
Once you have a good idea of your own priorities, selecting the right business for you is a much easier process. If you are looking for extra time to pursue hobbies, spend with the family, etc., a retail storefront is out of the question. Instead, consider online-based retail or informational products that you can manage and run from home, at any hour of the day. If your priority is to increase your personal wealth, select a business idea that has a relatively high rate of return and can be expanded, and get ready to put in the hours, cash, and work to grow your company. If you are simply looking for autonomy and a job you enjoy, well, choosing the right business shouldn’t be a problem at all. If happiness at work is your number one priority, take Oprah’s advice and follow your passion.

There is a Business for You!
There are all kinds of amazing business opportunities to fit all kinds of aspirations. The key to finding the best venture for you is to clarify your reasons for launching your own business and realistically assess the types of business that will meet those objectives. Be realistic about what can be achieved…even the best rags to riches stories don’t happen overnight. In fact, more often than not, there are episodes of destitution and bankruptcy in the histories of those who have pulled up the bootstraps to succeed!

Call Kehr Law for a free business consultation today! 619-400-4942 or visit us at www.kehrlaw.com

Four Things to Consider Before Starting a Business

admin — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 01:47:07 +0000

About the Author
K. MacKillop, a serial entrepreneur with a J.D. from Duke University, is co-founder of LaunchX and authors a blog focused on starting a business. The LaunchX System for Business Startup is a complete kit that helps you consider your lifestyle, money, knowledge & skills, and ideas as you plan to start a business. Visit LaunchX.com and let us help you start a business successfully today.

Lawyers Must Now Disclose if the do not have malpractice insurance

admin — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 01:30:53 +0000

Under Rule of Professional Conduct 3-410, which took effect Jan. 1, lawyers who do not carry malpractice insurance must notify their clients in writing — under most circumstances — that they are not insured.

Notification must be made at the time a client hires the lawyer if it is “reasonably foreseeable” that the representation will exceed four hours. If the insurance coverage later lapses, the attorney must tell the client within 30 days of the time he or she is no longer insured.

The rule does not apply to government lawyers and in-house counsel nor to legal services provided in an emergency to avoid prejudice to a client’s rights or interest. It also does not apply if the lawyer previously informed the same client that he or she was not insured.