Business Tips

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So You Want to Start a Business? How Should You Operate?
One of the concerns of every entrepreneur when starting a business is how the new business should be organized. In New Hampshire, you may operate a business as a sole proprietorship, a partnership, a limited partnership, a corporation (C or S), or as a limited liability company (the newest form under New Hampshire law). The one you choose will affect not only how the revenues are treated by the IRS but also whether you are personally liable for the debts and obligations of the business. The following is a brief description of the different forms of business organization.

Financial Statements: Did you know NH law requires a corporation to furnish annual financial statements to its shareholders.
New Hampshire law requires that a corporation furnish its shareholders with annual financial statements. These include a balance sheet as of the end of the fiscal year, an income statement for that year, and a statement of changes in shareholders' equity for the year unless that information appears elsewhere in the financial statements. If the corporation's financial statements are usually prepared on the basis of generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), the annual financial statements must also be prepared on that basis.

Independent Contractor or Employee: What the IRS calls it IS important!!!
An IRS determination that the "associate" you call an "independent contractor" is really an employee could have serious tax ramifications to your company.

Buying or Selling a Business
Entrepreneurs might find themselves buying or selling a business. If the business is a corporation, the owner could sell either the corporate stock or all of the assets. Usually, the Buyer prefers to buy the assets, not the stock. Buying a corporation's stock means Buyer gets the liabilities together with the assets. Most buyers do not want the liabilities.

What's in a Name?
Your company's name is very important. Besides the name being the first thing customers see about you, it also represents an investment in signs, advertising and stationery. You don't want to find out later that your investment is lost because someone else already has your name or a confusingly similar name.

The Limited Liability Company - What's So Great About It?
The Limited Liability Company (LLC) format has grown quite popular in its short, three-year existence here in New Hampshire. More and more, we see "LLC" after the business name instead of "Inc." Why? It has mainly to do with tax, but there is a good dose of administrative flexibility thrown into the mix of attractions.

Offensive Conduct in the Workplace: What Should the Employer Do?
Complaints to the NH Human Rights Commission and the federal Equal Employment Opportunities Commission (EEOC) are reportedly at an all-time high. Sexual harassment and racial or other discrimination are not the only forms of offensive conduct found in the workplace. All sorts of insults, even "joking around," can be extremely troublesome among sensitive co-workers. Employers need to be decisive and clear in their response to these workplace issues, or face potentially nasty consequences. Prevention is better than cure.

Mechanic's Liens and Attachments
Your business probably involves providing goods or services to consumers at your location or theirs. If your customer does not pay the bill, you may need to consider a mechanic's lien attachment on their property. This is particularly prevalent in construction cases or automotive repair, but the same principles can apply in many other kinds of cases.

Is Your Sales Contract Complete?
Your sales contract might not be complete if it does not provide for protection of your receivables. People who buy your goods and services are expected to pay for them. Sometimes they don't pay. They keep you waiting. Sometimes you have to go after them. Who will cover your costs in collection? It should not be you. It should be the debtor who is holding onto your money.

How to Deal with Bureaucrats to Get What You Need!
Bureaucrats can be challenging. We often encounter this basic maxim of bureaucratic authority: "The bureaucrat does not have enough authority to say yes. He only has enough authority to say no." A related corollary is the "unfortunate precedent syndrome." "If I allow this for you, I'll have to allow it for everyone." Therefore, obviously, the answer is "no." Given all that, let's see what you can do. Maybe you can fight City Hall.

Family Medical Leave Act
The Family Medical Leave Act was enacted in 1993 to balance the demands of the workplace with the needs of families. It provides eligible employees with a total of 12 workweeks of leave during any 12 month period for the following reasons:

New Hampshire "Lemon Law"
Have you or someone you know recently purchased or leased a car, truck or minivan that keeps breaking down? Is the same part breaking over and over?

Independent Contractor or Employee: Trouble in Your Business?
Treating workers as independent contractors instead of employees is very attractive to many employers – and to many workers. It cuts paperwork and cost. But the government does not like it and this could spell trouble for the employer.

Negotiations
Every day, all day, we are negotiating. Whether it is working out where to go for lunch or settling nasty litigation, the same basic principles apply. These principles have been studied extensively, and are aptly distilled in a good book, Getting to Yes, by Fisher and Ury of the Harvard Negotiation Project. You can negotiate agreement without giving in. Get this book.

Sexual Harassment in the Work Place What is sexual harassment?
Sexual harassment is any unwelcome sexual advance, request for sexual favors, or other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature that causes a person to feel that submission to the conduct is necessary to keep a job, get a raise or be promoted. Conduct may also be deemed sexual harassment if it interferes with a person's work performance or creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive working environment.

Your Company's Pension Plan Contributions
If your company has a 401(k) plan for its employees, or other pension or profit sharing plan, here's a tip: be sure to deposit your employees' payroll deductions into the plan. Do not fall into the hidden trap of leaving the 401(k) payroll withholdings in your operating account to use for other more pressing expenses, such as payroll and supplies. If the money is not timely deposited, you could face criminal charges.

Choosing a Name
Choosing a name for your business or product sounds easy. It's not. The hard part is being creative. Most people want to use a name that describes their product or business. That can lead to difficulties. Often, a "merely descriptive" name is already taken. If the name is available, you might have trouble stopping others from using it. Merely descriptive trade names or trademarks ("marks") are hard to defend. You're not allowed to tie up the language with a monopoly on a generic word or a merely descriptive mark.

How To Attract and Keep Valuable Employees
Growing companies need incentives to attract and keep valuable employees. The smaller the entrepreneurial company, the more important is each individual employee. Unfortunately, the entrepreneurial status of the company also means less job security and, usually, lower salaries. There are various options that a young, growing company can utilize to offset these hiring disadvantages.

Protect Your Business Name Even Before You Begin Using It
Your soon-to-be business name (trade name) is the name you will use to identify your company or product. In this age of electronic commerce it is important that, as soon as you've decided on a trade name or trademark, you should move to protect it.

Prevention Is Better Than Cure
Some optimistic entrepreneurs bought a small business. They did not think they needed a lawyer for the purchase and sale agreement. After the closing, they found out the business was not as great as the seller said it was. When they came to see us later, it cost more to fix the problem than it would have to avoid or prevent it.

Get It In Writing
"If it ain't in writing, it's not worth the paper it's not written on." This might be said of any verbal agreement after the deal has gone sour. Although verbal agreements can be enforceable, it is almost always better to get it in writing.