Category Archives: Small Business
Practical Concerns Count More Than Charisma for Staying in Business
If you are good looking and possess above average rhetorical skills, you can have a career as a pharmaceutical representative, but if you lack the patience for corporate life, you can sell fantasies of entrepreneurship to yourself or others. A few years ago, multilevel marketing companies that sold entrepreneurship training courses seemed to be… Read More »
B Corporations and Maryland Law
Some people, especially when they are in Internet troll mode, seem to think that businesses are the only way to accomplish anything, while others seem to take the attitude that businesses are the root of all evil. When you ask enough thoughtful questions to members of the latter group, though, they are usually willing… Read More »
Auto Repair Shop Sues Insurance Companies for Scaring Away Customers
The purpose of carrying insurance is to avoid financial catastrophe in the event of an unforeseen hardship, but insurance companies manage to make their claimants go through plenty of hassles before they get any financial relief. Consider that “don’t get sick” is the best financial advice both for people with health insurance and for… Read More »
New Maryland Law Restricts Noncompetes in Medical and Veterinary Professions
It only makes sense that big businesses hire lawyers to review contracts that could enable them to gain millions of dollars or, if things go wrong, to lose millions of dollars; some have lawyers on staff whose duties consist mainly of drafting, reviewing, and modifying contracts. Even if yours is a small business with… Read More »
What Does D.C.’s New Affordable Housing Complex Mean for Your Entrepreneurial Plans?
Even if you are not a big-time player in commercial real estate, a major real estate project in your area influences your plans for your business. The residents and commercial tenants of the new complex will need groceries and other consumer goods. Some of them will commute to work, unless the new real estate… Read More »
Are You Issuing Predatory Loans to Your Employees?
D.C. is one of the most expensive cities in the country, and you like to think that you are doing your part to contribute to the prosperity of its inhabitants by operating a small business where you sell your products or services to customers at affordable prices while paying your employees a fair wage. … Read More »
LLCs Are Not 100 Percent Creditor-Proof
Choosing a business structure is the first thing you do when you establish a business, and many entrepreneurs, especially inexperienced ones, make the decision hastily. When your only basis for the decision is the one-paragraph descriptions on the IRS website, you can easily get the impression that the limited liability company (LLC) business structure… Read More »
LLC Operating Agreements
Starting a business is easy, but making it profitable is not. To incorporate a business, all you have to do is file a form, and then you can get to work marketing your products or services. When things go wrong, though, you often wish that you had more written agreements to rely on so… Read More »
ABC As an Alternative to Bankruptcy
The decision to close a business can come as a relief. You might be walking away from an unsuccessful venture so that you can start a new one that has greater chances of success. Perhaps you have decided to get out of the entrepreneurship game all together and just work a boring desk job,… Read More »
What’s With Banks Unexpectedly Closing Down Small Business Accounts?
Small business owners learn early on to roll with the punches. Your shipment of crab meat didn’t come in today? Sell lobster rolls and call it a house special. Your French fry cook didn’t show up today? Put on your hair net and your apron and get to frying? The cash register doesn’t have… Read More »
