Plenty of businesses elect S-corp status early on and never look at it again. That's usually fine — until the business changes shape and the election that made sense at $150,000 in revenue starts creating friction at $1.5 million, or when a sale, new partner, or expansion is on the horizon. An S...
Business Law Blog
Who Has to File a Schedule A for a Louisiana Liquor License? What Restaurant LLC Investors Actually Need to Know
Who Has to File a Schedule A for a Louisiana Liquor License? What Restaurant LLC Investors Actually Need to Know Business Law Group | ATC and Liquor Licensing Not every member of a Louisiana LLC is required to submit a Schedule A when the entity applies for an ATC liquor permit — and understanding exactly who is required to file is one of the most practically important...
What Happens to Your Louisiana LLC When You Die — and Why the Operating Agreement Probably Does Not Cover It
What Happens to Your Louisiana LLC When You Die — and Why the Operating Agreement Probably Does Not Cover It Business Law Group | Estate Planning and Trusts Most Louisiana LLC owners assume that if something happens to them...
Renting Your Building to Your Own Business? Put It in Writing (Sometimes).
Renting Your Building to Your Own Business? Whether You Need a Lease Depends on Your Structure. A lot of business owners end up in this exact setup: you own the building, your business operates out of it, and the “rent” is really just money moving between two entities you control. It feels infor...
Asset Sale vs. Stock Sale: What Louisiana Business Buyers and Sellers Need to Understand Before Signing
Asset Sale vs. Stock Sale: What Louisiana Business Buyers and Sellers Need to Understand Before Signing Business Law Group | Buying and Selling a Business When a business changes hands in Louisiana, the first structural question is...
Why Your Building Shouldn't Live Inside Your Operating Company
If your business owns the building it operates out of — or you're thinking about buying real estate through your company — this is worth five minutes before you sign anything. We see it often: a founder buys a building, and because the business already has an entity set up, the property goes in ...
What Happens to ATC Permits When a Louisiana Restaurant Chain Changes Ownership — and Why Filing Quickly Is Not Optional
What Happens to ATC Permits When a Louisiana Restaurant Chain Changes Ownership — and Why Filing Quickly Is Not Optional By Business Law Group | ATC and Liquor Licensing When a restaurant chain with multiple Louisiana locations changes ownership, the ATC permits attached to each location do not...
Before You Sign the LOI: Why Founders Who Wait to Hire an Attorney Leave Money — and Power — on the Table
The email arrives and it looks like validation. A private equity firm has found you, they love what you've built, and they're putting a number on it - I number that seems almost excessively large, almost double what a typical buyer would offer. The letter of intent (LOI) is polished, friendly, an...
Will, Trust, or Both? How Louisiana Business Owners Should Actually Think About Succession
Will, Trust, or Both? How Louisiana Business Owners Should Actually Think About Succession By Business Law Group | Estate Planning and Trusts Louisiana is one of only two states in the country with forced heirship laws, and if you own a business, those laws apply to you regardless of how...
What Is a Personal Guarantee in a Commercial Lease — and What Are You Actually Agreeing to Sign?
What Is a Personal Guarantee in a Commercial Lease — and What Are You Actually Agreeing to Sign? By Business Law Group | Commercial Leases A personal guarantee on a commercial lease means that if your business stops paying rent, the landlord can come after...
How to Buy a Business in Louisiana: What Happens Between the Letter of Intent and Closing Day
How to Buy a Business in Louisiana: What Happens Between the Letter of Intent and Closing Day By Business Law Group | Buying/Selling a Business Buying a business in Louisiana typically takes 60 to 120 days from a signed letter of intent to closing — and most of what happens in that window determines whether the deal is actually worth...
"We're Just Like Real Estate Agents": Why That Argument Won't Save Your Company During an IRS Audit
"We're Just Like Real Estate Agents": Why That Argument Won't Save Your Business from an IRS Audit By Business Law Group | Business Contracts & Compliance We hear some version of the same conversation at least once a month. A business owner sits across from us — or joins a call — and walks u...
Arbitration Clauses in Contractor Agreements: What They Are, When They Help, and When They Can Hurt You
If you have ever reviewed a contract — whether you are the one handing it across the table or the one signing it — you have almost certainly seen an arbitration clause. They are everywhere. Most people skip right past them. That is a mistake, because whether an arbitration clause belongs in your ...
The Letter of Intent Isn't Just a Formality — It Sets the Terms of Everything That Comes After
When a buyer and seller agree in principle on a deal, the first document they usually sign is a letter of intent — an LOI. A lot of people treat this like a handshake on paper, a non-binding agreement that just gets the conversation going. That's a mistake that can cost you leverage, money, and m...
You Don't Need to Be Wealthy to Need a Trust
A lot of people hear "trust" and think it's for wealthy families with complicated estates and teams of accountants. So they put off estate planning, or they sign a basic will and assume that's enough. I want to dispel that myth, because it keeps too many business owners and their families unneces...
What Happens to Your Lease If You Sell Your Business?
You've built a successful business. You're thinking about selling it — or maybe you've already started having conversations with potential buyers. There's one thing that can quietly derail or devalue that transaction that most sellers don't think about until it's almost too late: your commercial ...
Thinking About Selling Your Business? Here's What to Do Before You List It
Most business owners spend years building something, then spend about four weeks trying to sell it — and wonder why the deal falls apart or they leave money on the table. If you're thinking about selling in the next one to three years, the time to start preparing is now. The first thing I tell c...
Trade Secrets Are Your Most Vulnerable Asset — And Most Businesses Do Nothing to Protect Them
Your customer list. Your proprietary recipe. Your pricing model. Your manufacturing process. These aren't just valuable to your business — they may be legally protectable as trade secrets. But trade secret protection doesn't happen automatically. You have to actually take steps to keep them secre...
Your Lease Is Up for Renewal. Don't Just Sign the Extension.
Your landlord sent you a lease renewal notice. Maybe you love the location. Maybe moving feels like too much hassle. Maybe things are busy and it's just easier to say yes. I understand all of that — and I'm going to encourage you to slow down anyway, because lease renewal is one of the most under...
Your Business Succession Plan and Your Estate Plan Need to Work Together
Most business owners have thought about who will run the company if something happens to them. Far fewer have actually put anything in writing. And almost none have made sure their business succession plan is coordinated with their personal estate plan. That gap can destroy value that took a life...
Who Owns What Your Employees and Contractors Create?
You hired a designer to create your logo. A developer to build your website. A consultant to write your training manuals. You paid them. You assumed you owned the work. You may be wrong. This is one of the most common and most expensive IP mistakes I see in growing businesses. Ownership of creat...
What You Don't Know About the Business You're Buying Could Cost You Everything
You found a business you want to buy. The numbers look good. The seller seems motivated. And you're already picturing yourself running the place. I get it — that excitement is real. But before you sign anything, there's a process that separates smart buyers from sorry ones: due diligence. And mos...
What Happens to Your Business If You Can't Run It Tomorrow?
We talk a lot about what happens when a business owner dies. But there's a scenario that's just as disruptive and more likely: what happens if you become incapacitated — temporarily or permanently — and can't run your business? A serious accident. A medical emergency. A prolonged illness. Any of...
Your Brand Is an Asset. Are You Protecting It Like One?
You've spent years building name recognition. Your logo is on everything. Customers come back because they trust what your name means. And you've never filed a trademark. That's a risk most business owners don't fully appreciate until someone else starts using something confusingly similar — and ...
Your Landlord's Lease Is Written for Your Landlord. Here's What to Watch For.
When a landlord hands you a commercial lease, that document was drafted by their attorney to protect their interests. Which is completely reasonable. What's not reasonable is signing it without understanding what you're agreeing to — because a commercial lease can lock you into obligations that f...