3 Questions to Ask Your Attorney Before Starting a Florida Business
Starting A Business In Florida? What Questions Should You Ask Your Lawyer?
Being proactive can make all of the difference with ensuring the success of any new business venture in Florida. As you prepare for your next business, it’s always a good decision to meet with a South Florida business formation lawyer to discuss a few key areas of concern:
What Are My Legal Risks and How Do I Minimize Them?
Every business carries a variety of potential legal risks, and understanding them along with the applicable laws that govern your industry is necessary in order to avoid litigation, fines or penalties. If you don’t fully understand these laws, it will be challenging for your business to stay in compliance.
That’s why it’s essential to meet with your attorney ahead of time to get a full picture of your legal risks and the practices and strategies you should adopt to minimize them – from training, to insurance, handbooks, payments, contracts, hiring procedures, business operations, logistics and more.
What Contracts Do I Need?
Nearly every business will need to have customized contracts drafted for it, from lease agreements, to employee and independent contractor agreements, to vendor agreements, terms of service and more.
This is perhaps one of the most important questions to address with your attorney – any mistakes in the terms of your contracts can expose you to a range of legal and financial risks unnecessarily.
Well written contracts should address your potential risks with protective clauses and will help to eliminate the potential of future disputes. They should outline what might occur if one party fails to hold up their end of the deal and the obligations of both parties so that there is clarity and reasonable expectations with each agreement your business enters into.
What Business Structure Should I Choose?
As we have previously discussed on this blog, your choice of business structure has major ramifications on your liability, taxation, annual requirements and more.
You might be tempted to choose a simple entity such as a sole proprietorship, but with this structure there is no separate protection for your personal assets.
Or you might consider a limited liability company which is a popular option because of its flexibility, limited personal liability and tax benefits, and minimized formalities.
However, C corporations may be a good option for those who are seeking venture capital, or who want to create a business structure that is easy to sell at a future date.
Other scenarios where this structure may be useful is for those who anticipate profit-sharing among multiple owners or who want to give their employees stock options.
These are just a few of the many questions that need to be addressed for a new business. The right decision on these questions and many others will be clear once you meet with a business formation lawyer in South Florida. Contact Schecter Law today at (954) 779-7009 for any questions you may have about forming a business in Florida.
