Legal issues for small business, part 2

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Posted on 24th October 2010 by Krishna Gupta in Business Intelligence

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Last time we looked at the benefits of forming an entity for your business, and obtaining the right kind or insurance. Today we look at several additional aspects of running your business:

Employment laws. Each state has its own employment laws. There are also some federal laws that apply to employers regardless of state. If you have employees- including yourself- you may need to register with your state. You will need to learn the different between and employee and an independent contractor, and the difference between an exempt and non-exempt employee. You may need to purchase workers compensation liability insurance. The state representatives will be able to guide you through what is necessary.

This site: http://topics.law.cornell.edu/wex/table_labor lists the state agencies. Calling the office from your state is a good place to start.

Licenses and registrations. Are you a hairdresser? In California, you need a cosmetology license. In Colorado, restaurateurs need a food service license and in New York, massage therapists need a specific license. Even if you do not fall within a specially regulated industry, you probably need a general business license, granted at the state, county, or city level. Your state Small Business Administration is a good place to start to find out this information.

Contracts. Whether you are selling a product or a service; running a brick-and-mortar storefront or a virtual one; business-to-business or directly to the consumer, you need a contract to set forth the terms and conditions of your sale. For instance:

What is your refund policy?
If there is a dispute, which state’s laws apply?
Are you clients required to resolve disputes through arbitration?
Do you require your clients to agree to a release of liability or indemnity?
All of these terms, and more, should be in your contract. Depending on the complexity of your business and the number of products and services you offer, you may need more than one contract.

This blog post is intended as a general discussion of legal principals, and should not be construed as legal representation or advice. OneCoach is not responsible for any act or consequence resulting from your reliance on anything contained in this blog. OneCoach and its attorneys do not represent you in this or any matter. You are encouraged to retain local counsel to assist you with any legal issues.

Protect your small business by taking the right legal steps

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Posted on 14th October 2010 by Krishna Gupta in Business Intelligence

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Small-business owners face many challenges and decisions, in marketing, sales, management and other areas. Even if you excel in all of these, your hard work may be for naught if you should encounter legal difficulties.

If you are faced with penalties, liabilities and lawsuits, your personal and business assets may be in jeopardy. The issues identified here are generally not “fun” to deal with. But it is better to deal with them now, rather than face potentially door-closing consequences later.

Here are some legal issues that all small-business owners should be aware of. We’ll introduce more legal topics and explore these in more depth in subsequent posts.

Forming an entity. Even solo entrepreneurs with no employees, working out of their home, should consider forming an entity. Why? Creating a business entity is like creating another person – one that you control, and that is responsible for all of the financial and decision-making aspects of your business. If you do everything through your entity (contracts, leases, bank accounts, etc.), and observe proper formalities, your personal assets will be greatly protected from liabilities caused by the business. (All businesses create some liability, though it can range from great to small.) Your home, your personal bank accounts – those are personal assets that could be seized by a creditor if you do not pay the business bill, or make a bad hiring decision, or for mistakes made by employees.

You may think, “Nobody would come after me, I have no assets.” Well, if you are under 65 and are in decent health, you have your entire working life ahead of you to pay off a judgment. Creditors will take payment over 20 years if they have to.

There are many different types of entities, and most states have laws governing each type. Talk to your accountant and/or attorney about the form of entity that is right for your business. The cost for a simple and straightforward entity formation can be as low as $500 – $1,000 dollars. It is worth spending the money to protect all that you have worked for. Once you have your entity, educate yourself about the “corporate formalities” for your chosen corporate form. These are the steps you need to follow and document to prove that your entity is separate from your self.

Business insurance. A standard Business Office Policy or Commercial General Liability policy will protect your business assets from liabilities in a range of situations. Each policy is different, and will have exclusions (for example, intentional torts such as assault – your insurance company will not insure you against that). Talk to an insurance broker about the policy that fits your business – there may be riders in addition to the basic policy that will cover you more fully. It is worth the time to educate your insurance broker about your business. Look for at least an AA rating. Again, there is a cost, but it could save you millions if someone decides to sue you.

Next time: Employment laws, licenses and registrations, contracts

This blog post is intended as a general discussion of legal principals, and should not be construed as legal representation or advice. OneCoach is not responsible for any act or consequence resulting from your reliance on anything contained in this blog. OneCoach and its attorneys do not represent you in this or any matter. You are highly encouraged to retain local counsel to assist you with any legal issues.

This article is written by Rebecca London Esq from OneCoach team!

Getting started with PR

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Posted on 29th September 2010 by Krishna Gupta in Business Intelligence

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This post is the second in a series of excerpts from OneCoach CEO John Assaraf’s interview with publicity expert Paul Hartunian.

If you’re a newcomer to the publicity game, it helps to understand some basic rules. Here are two fundamental principles that will greatly enhance your efforts to generate publicity for your business.

Rule #1 for PR novices: Start small.

Do your first radio interview with a radio station of a hundred watts or less. (You can find out how much power a station has by looking in any media directory.) Working with a small station will minimize your jitters and allow you to get comfortable with how radio interviews work.

Ditto with newspapers. For your first press interview, go with a paper that has a circulation of 1,000 or less. Again, you’ll find the numbers in media directories. Once you get comfortable with small media outlets, start working your way up to the bigger ones.

Interestingly, the bigger you get in the newspaper, radio and TV worlds, the more professional the interviewers get. They know how to make you feel comfortable, which makes the interview a lot easier.

Finally, don’t get too excited. When asked to give an interview, many business owners see it as their “once in a lifetime publicity opportunity.” As a result, they get overly excited, have unrealistic expectations, and come across as nervous or unprepared. Or worse, they violate the unwritten rule of never giving a sales pitch during a PR interview.

Stay cool, calm and in control. Once get into the flow, you will begin to see publicity opportunities all around you.

Rule #2: Don’t expect instant results.

Too often, business owners send out a very good press release but nothing happens. So they throw in the towel and give up on their PR efforts.

But reporters are like crafty old bass lurking in the fishing hole. They rarely bite the first time you throw out a line. Instead, they wait to see what you do next.

A week later, send out a second press release. This will pique the reporter’s interest further, but chances are he still won’t respond. However, the reporter is getting to know your name.

A week later, send out a third press release. If it, too, contains information that will be useful to the reporter’s readers, listeners or viewers, you may soon receive a phone call. At the least, the reporter will keep you in mind the next time he or she needs an expert on your topic.

Why do reporters play it so close to the vest?

Put yourself in their shoes. They have the potential to give you what amounts to thousands of dollars worth of airtime or space in the newspaper. Before they give it away, they want to make darn sure you know what you’re doing.

PR isn’t like winning the lottery. It’s a gradual process of building relationship with various media outlets. Provide useful information each time, and after a while the results begin to flow.

So start small, be patient and stick with it. Your rewards will come in time.

Small really is the new big

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Posted on 28th September 2010 by Krishna Gupta in Business Intelligence

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This post is the third in a series of excerpts from OneCoach CEO John Assaraf’s interview with Rita Gunther McGrath, co-author of The Entrepreneurial Mindset, and MarketBusters: 40 Strategic Moves that Drive Exceptional Business Growth.

Small-business owners need to concentrate on turning limitations into advantages. For example, one of the main advantages you’ve got is your ability to create customer intimacy. You have the capacity, when you’re at that size, to really get to know your customers on a very personal basis, designing a very special experience for them – a true fit for your clients.

Your clients will come to trust you with their needs and feel confident that you’ll be able to help them even without them having to specifically ask for anything. You also have the distinct ability to customize in many cases. But as good as it is to cater to your clients’ needs, make sure you’re not overextending yourself – make sure you’re getting payback for it.

A third advantage to being a small-business owner is that you’re closer to your customers than a large organization, so it’s easier to get the insights about where they’re going. You can actually be much more proactive and respond quickly to them rather than wait around for customers to start complaining.

In this way, you can really collaborate with your clients, asking them questions and determining exactly what they need and how you can best serve them. You need to actively participate with them, observing them, being part of their experience. That’s the key, make sure you’re always active with your business – your clients will notice.

So now that you’ve created a positive and delightful client experience, you made yourself memorable. Congratulations, you now stand out. And now you’ve given people something to talk about – they’re going to tell all of their friends how great your service or product is.

By keeping a pulse on your clients, you constantly keep tabs on what you’re doing right, and what you can do to improve.

This article is written by OneCoach Team!

Generate big publicity for your small business

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Posted on 27th September 2010 by Krishna Gupta in Business Intelligence

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This post is the first in a series of excerpts from OneCoach CEO John Assaraf’s interview with publicity expert Paul Hartunian.

Public relations is mandatory for small businesses, yet most small-business owners have no clue how to get it.

PR is essential for two reasons.

First, most small-business owners operate on a very limited budget, so they need to get the greatest value for their dollar. Second, PR provides credibility that you can’t get from traditional marketing venues such as sales letters, advertising and Web sites.

When a story appears about you or your business in a newspaper or magazine, or on radio or TV, you get instant credibility. People trust the information because it comes from a third party. You can’t get that from traditional marketing, and you can’t get it anywhere else for free.

How to get publicity for your business

Every business can get publicity by following three basic steps.

1. Forget what you think you know about publicity.

Most people think they need a “hook” — something dazzling, exciting or unique — to generate PR. Not true! To get publicity, simply give people information they want.

For example, suppose you bought a new house and needed to landscape the yard. If you’ve never hired a landscaper before, how do you know what to look for? Now, suppose a landscaper in your area sent out a press release on how to pick a landscaper or how to avoid common landscaping pitfalls. Wouldn’t he rise to the top of the list of landscapers you want to talk to?

Similarly, suppose your current house needs a new roof and you aren’t sure whether to replace the shingles or upgrade to tile. If a roofer in your area put out a press release on how to evaluate and select roofing materials, wouldn’t you want to talk to that roofer before anyone else?

Shingles and landscaping pitfalls are not dazzling. But people want to know about them. Bottom line: mundane works fine for PR as long as it contains information people want.

2. Provide “foundation” information.

Foundation information is news about your product, service or business that may not be new or interesting to you, but holds great interest to your prospects and helps them solve small problems.

For example, if you run a plumbing business, consider setting up a “do it yourself” plumber’s help line. Set aside an hour every Friday afternoon to take calls from people with questions about plumbing. No charge and no sales pitch on your part. Simply tell people what they want to know about their plumbing issues. Or, set up a website that shows people how to make simple repairs, such as replacing a washer, without calling a plumber.

Will this cost you some small jobs? Probably. But when the people who call in have a broken pipe or need a new water heater, who do you think they will call? Some random plumber out of the phone book, or the plumber who took the time to help them fix a small problem for free?

3. Give people information they need.

What do people need to know? Again, it’s the little things. If I have a leaky faucet should I call a plumber or try to fix it myself? If a fuse blows, is it an isolated incident or a sign of a bigger problem? These kinds of issues will almost always get some press coverage because the information helps people in times of need.

Don’t think you need to shock or amaze the world in order to get media coverage. Tell people what they want and need to know about your business or industry and they will think of you first when it comes time to use your product or service.