A stay bonus agreement, also referred to as a retention bonus agreement, is a written agreement between a company and a key employee to induce the employee to stay with the company. Understanding the definition and purpose of this type of bonus agreement is critical for both business owners and employees. A stay bonus agreement is a contract between a …
Selling Your Small Business: What You Should Know
Determining whether to start a business is a major life decision. For small business owners, deciding when and how to sell the business is arguably even more consequential. Before selling a business, the owner is likely to spend many hours and even days worrying and considering the options: Is the market right? What price should I set for my business, …
Can (and Should) My Business Mandate the COVID-19 Vaccine for Employees?
Just a year ago, businesses across the United States shuttered temporarily in response to the novel coronavirus. Some of these businesses could not weather the virus storm and closed for good. Now that COVID-19 vaccines are available, many businesses are wrestling with deciding when to resume in-person operations and bring their staff back full-time. At the time of writing, 1.5 …
How to Use Customer Testimonials Legally
Where do you find a good plumber? Who can recommend a good Italian restaurant? Who is the best divorce attorney in town? Sometimes these answers are found by asking family, friends, and neighbors, but many people find answers to these questions on social media and review sites such as Google, Yelp, Amazon, Facebook, and TripAdvisor. Customer reviews and testimonials are …
Key Considerations for Noncompete Agreements
Companies grow by investing time and money in various resources, including their employees. Yet business owners are often anxious about losing their investment, i.e., the time they spend training new hires and the confidential information they share with their new employees. Once confidential information is shared, there is a risk that an employee will leak the company’s trade secrets to …
Ask Cari: Common Business Formation Mistakes
The key to a successful business is having the right people, financial knowledge, effective processes, and a well-researched business plan. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, approximately 20 percent of businesses fail in their first year, and 50 percent fail by their fifth year. Forming and running a business is hard regardless of whether the business provides products or …
Ask Cari: What You Need to Know about Buy-Sell Agreements
If you are a business owner, you probably worry about your bottom line, employee retention, and health insurance premiums, but have you also considered what will happen to your business if you are in an accident? What if your business partner gets divorced and your partner’s ex-spouse is awarded part ownership of the business and wants to make decisions affecting …
Client Cosmolex Portal
Rincker Law, PLLC has been using Cosmolex for the last year. Cosmolex offers an opportunity for us to have a Client Cosmolex Portal. Client invoices, court pleadings, and correspondence is saved into your Cosmolex portal. You are also able to upload documents into the portal to send them to us. This can work great for confidential documents such as tax …
Ask Cari: Limited Liability Companies and Form 1099 Reporting
Business owners typically dislike dealing with the tax reporting, filing, and payment requirements associated with running a business. It can be tedious and require attention to numerous details. For businesses that have made payments to vendors and independent contractors, the type of tax reporting required and the form it should take are often overlooked and confusing. Specifically, it requires understanding …
Five Considerations Before You Use a Payment Demand Letter
As a business owner, it is almost guaranteed that you will encounter some variation of the following scenario: You engaged a client and completed fantastic work. The products the client desired were delivered on time with practically no issues. To request the money the client agreed to pay you, you send an invoice or a bill. Unfortunately, your invoice is …
Risky Business: Piercing the Veil and How It Puts Your Business at Risk
When you create a limited liability company (LLC) or a corporation, the concept of limited liability is one of the key rationales for those entity choices. Limited liability is typically available when you create distinct legal entities that separate your personal assets from your business assets, thereby limiting exposure to liability on both fronts. Even though this is a foundational …