Has your business been using a name different from the formally registered name in your state? If so, you're using a trade name. Today I'm going to explain what a trade name is, what it isn't, and what you should do if you're using one.  So first, what is a trade name? It is usually an informa...

Are you forming a business and trying to decide who or what entity you're going to name as a resident agent? I'm going to give you a few tips as to how you should make that decision.  So first, what is a resident agent? The resident agent that you put forth on your articles of incorporation or a...

Are you a business owner thinking about bringing on an independent contractor to perform duties for your business? Wondering whether you need a written agreement?  Previously, I explained that you don't really need a written employment contract for an employee. An independent contractor, howev...

Hi, are you a business owner wondering whether you actually need a written employment contract or not for an employee?  I'm going to give you three situations where you should have a written employment contract. 

If you are a business owner who formed an entity, such as an LLC or corporation, to achieve the limited liability that entities are known for, is there truly complete limited liability for the owners of the business? My answer to you is that, unfortunately, there isn't. While limited liability...

Are you a business owner with one or more partners, and have you ever been in a dispute with them? (By business partner, I mean LLC members or other shareholders of the business and in which you own your interest.) If you have, you know how emotionally exhausting and expensive it can be. If you...

Do you own a small corporation? Have you ever wondered whether you need a shareholders' agreement?  In this post, I'm going to explain what a shareholders' agreement is and whether you should have one for your corporation. You should know that this applies only to corporations and not to LLCs, so...

You may have heard that you should do business succession planning, but what does that mean?  In a nutshell, business succession planning is basically setting up plans to make sure that your business can continue if something should happen to you or another one of the owners. For instance, if yo...

Have vendors or professional advisors ever asked you to provide them an equity share in your company in exchange for their services? If so, I've got a couple of things that you're going to want to think about before you say yes. 

Are you a business owner wondering whether you need to register your business to do business in a different state other than where your entity was formed? I'm going to give you a few tips as to when you definitely should register your business to do business in another state and a couple of situations where it's not so clear and you might want to consult somebody. 

If you run a business, particularly a service-oriented business, you probably have a service agreement between you and your customers or clients. But is that service agreement good enough? Often, people who need a service agreement, especially those who are just starting a business, will grab ...

Are you a business owner with a website for your business? Have you wondered whether the terms of use or the privacy policy on your website are sufficient? If so, you're not alone. I'm going to give you a few tips so you can figure out whether your terms of use and privacy policy are sufficient, or whether you might need some further assistance.

Hi, I'm Katherine Taylor, the lawyer for business owners. Are you a business owner with one or more partners? And have you ever been in a dispute with one or more of your business partners? If so, you know how emotionally exhausting and expensive it can be. So I'm going to give you a few tip...

Hi, I'm Katherine Taylor, the lawyer for business owners. If you are a business owner who formed an entity because you wanted to achieve that limited liability that entities are known for, do you wonder sometimes whether that really is the case? Is there truly complete, limited liability for the...

Have you ever heard somebody say that they own a "close” corporation and wondered whatthat means? A close corporation, sometimes referred to as a “closed” corporation, is a less formal way ofrunning their business; the shareholders have elected to have no board of directors. In a regular c...

Many times I'll get the question, "can I 1099 that person?" or "can I hire this person as a 1099 employee?" I usually say "1099 is not a verb, and there's no such thing as a ‘1099 employee'” because a 1099 is an IRS form that is provided to independent contractors. Implicit in these questions i...

We are now into 2021. And while 2020 has come to a close, there are things we can't just leave back in 2020 because there remain a lot of huge challenges ahead in 2021. But my message to you is -- you've got it. Why do I say that? In 2020, you likely went through a lot of changes, whether it'...

If you own an LLC, you might have asked yourself "do I need an operating agreement?" My answer to my clients is a very solid "probably." An operating agreement does the same thing for an LLC that bylaws do for a corporation: it discusses, documents, and memorializes the relationship among the...

Attorney and CPA, Katherine L. Taylor of Taylor Legal in Maryland asks, "If you are a small business owner thinking about selling your business, do you need a lawyer?"

Let's say you're a business owner who started a corporation 10 years ago, along with another owner, and you're getting ready to sell. Fortunately, you’ve found a buyer, and you realize that you never issued stock. Is that a fatal flaw? Probably not, but it's going to take some work for you to be able to actually sell that stock to another party. I can help you do that.

You've owned a small business for a while, probably. It's been either a great experience or a headache, but for whatever reason, you want to sell it or pass it along to another generation or another owner. You've never done this before and you're not sure what's involved, but I can help.

You've probably heard the phrase "pull yourself up by your bootstraps.” It's been around for more than 100 years, but it has also evolved into another term that a lot of startups (especially tech startups) use to describe the way that they get off the ground and grow. In the old days, pulling ...

So you've started a business, you've been running it for a while, and now you have investors. What do you do first? KATHERINE L. TAYLOR, ATTORNEY AND CPA

Katherine Taylor, the lawyer for business owners, explains how running a business is like running a race. You can contact her at her website, https://taylorlegal.com/

I was in a hurry today because I didn't allow enough time between preparing for my race in October and getting this post ready. But in that process, I realized that I was making progress to achieving my goals, even if it didn't seem like it at the time. I have a plan to run a half-marathon in October, and that plan requires running a certain number of times a week. I had to do it today...