The Basics of Venture Capital Financing If you’ve come up with a great business idea, but don’t have the money to bring it to market, it may feel like you’re left with few funding options. Banks aren’t interested in loaning to startups that have yet to make any money, and most people don’t have family [..]
Donate Appreciated Assets to Charity Instead of Selling Outright For Tax and Income Benefits Using a Charitable Remainder Trust If you have highly appreciated assets like stock and real estate you want to sell, it may make sense to use a charitable remainder trust (CRT) to avoid income and estate taxes—all while creating a [..]
Protect Your Intellectual Property with Work for Hire Clauses Rather than hiring full-time employees, you may choose to use independent contractors (IC) to handle the bulk of your creative tasks, such as art, logo design, photography, and content writing. For sure, working with ICs can save your company quite a bit of money, because unlike [..]
The Ins and Outs of Chapter 7 Bankruptcy for Small Business Owners It’s a simple fact of entrepreneurship: Small businesses fail all the time and for many different reasons, some of which are outside of the owner’s control. If you’re falling deeper and deeper into debt by keeping your company open, sometimes the best business [..]
What Business Owners Should Know About Running Pre-Employment Credit Checks In addition to checking professional references, conducting interviews, and running criminal background checks, many business owners also conduct credit checks on potential new hires to assess their suitability for the job. Such screening is obviously important for hiring high-level positions or those directly involved with [..]
What Does the New Tax Law Mean for Your Business? On December 22, 2017, President Trump signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act bill into law, and taxpayers are still trying to figure out how it might affect them. This is especially true for business owners, as the most dramatic changes under the law are [..]
4 Vital Legal Agreements All Startups Should Have in Place When getting a business off the ground, one common mistake business owners make is not establishing a solid legal foundation to protect their company from unforeseen situations and circumstances. The most effective and efficient way to provide this legal bedrock is by putting a set [..]
The Pros and Cons of Hiring Independent Contractors If you’re a business owner, one of the most important choices you must make is whether to hire full-time employees or use independent contractors (IC). While the two classifications may seem quite similar, they both come with a wide array of unique advantages and disadvantages. What’s more, [..]
3 Critical But Often-Overlooked Metrics Businesses Should Track As a business owner, you’re likely monitoring a number of key performance indicators (KPI) to determine how well your company is doing, and if you’re launching a new business – you’ve undoubtedly heard about the importance of KPIs. Whether related to your financials, advertising, turnover, and/or website [..]
The Key Differences Between Wills and Trusts When discussing estate planning, a will is what most people think of first. Indeed, wills have been the most popular method for passing on assets to heirs for hundreds of years. But wills aren’t your only option. And if you rely on a will alone to pass on [..]