Well, today’s post shows what happens when a huge company – Fed Ex – gets caught in the independent contractor v. employee conundrum. And now the question is whether or not we will be the ones to bear the fallout.
THIS Law May Be Helping The Hackers Invade Your Privacy
So let me start by saying that I am most definitely not a tech savvy person. However, but according to Kim Lachance Shandrow, it seems that the iCloud’s “Find My Phone” feature aka the Kill Switch, was the weak link that hackers were able to exploit. This will not be a surprise to anyone who follows this blog: our June 20th post clearly points out that
Get FREE $$$ For Your Business From The Govt!
Back during the 2012 presidential election, there was an argument between the two parties about, “Takers vs. Makers”. As a person who believes that sometimes people some need help to pull themselves up by the bootstrap, I could never really buy into that dichotomy. We give people loans and grants to go to college so they can become productive members of society right? Why shouldn’t the government do the same for small businesses? After all, entrepreneurs don’t start new enterprises because they want to suckle at the government’s teat forever. They want their companies to grow, make money, become profitable and hopefully, make the owners rich!
Protect Your Stake In Your Partnership!
As Kohler explains, the goal of this contract is to protect the intrinsic value of a business for each of its individual partners. The buy-sell agreement does this by setting the price and terms of a buyout by the remaining partner(s) should one of the partners decides to voluntarily or involuntarily leave the business. These events (which would be specified in the buy-sell agreement) can include situations where the partner leaving the business: retires, gets a divorce, passes away or maybe just wants to sell his shares to someone else.
3 Reasons Contractors Are Better Than Employees
A few months ago, I wrote a blog post about the difference between independent contractors and employees. In that piece I concluded that many small business owners would prefer to designate their workers as contractors or freelancers because doing this was best for their company’s bottom line. The data collected by Scott Shane confirms this finding because it shows the spending by sole proprietors “on contract labor rose from 3.5 percent of…business expenses in 2003 to 6.4 percent in 2011”. There are three reasons why small business owners have chosen to hire more freelancers to fulfill their needs:
How To Save Your Company From A Legal Ditch
When I saw Adam Callinan's article about the 3 legal issues that can kill a small business, I was curious to see how the substance of his piece matches up to my recommendations to you these past few months. I'm happy to report that, for the most part, Mr. Callinan and I are on the same page when it comes to the legal risks that entrepreneurs should prioritize:
Want To Be A Federal Contractor? New Rules For You!
Recently, the Obama administration has decided to use the federal contracting process as a means of advancing its agenda on workers’ rights. This, of course, means many contractors will have to jump through even more hurdles if they want to secure a successful bid. I personally believe that the government, in its capacity as purchaser, has the right to demand certain things from its vendors so I don’t have a problem with this. However, if you are interested in becoming a federal contractor, you should know that so far this year, the president has issued executive orders that:
Will The Next Silicon Valley Be In Canada?
For U.S. citizens like you and me, we take our freedom to change jobs or start our business for granted. However, for many smart, entrepreneurial minds out there, these are not options that are available. And according to Sara Ashley O'Brien this is all because of the very restrictive approach that the the U.S. has adopted a toward awarding visas. Compare this attitude with that of our neighbors to the North.
How Your Friend Might Be The Biggest Threat To Your Business
As the infographic below shows, many employees walk away with passwords, logins, access to your confidential information. All the steps you took to protect your proprietary information... it's all for naught. What about compliance with your social media policy that is designed to protect your reputation and ensure that your company does not break any laws? Well, that doesn't really mean much if your former employee still has complete access to your social media accounts right?
Your Smartphone or Your Data: Which Will You Choose?
So, after 3 years with my old Samsung, it was time to upgrade to a new smartphone. While I was in the process of setting up my new phone, I came across the ubiquitous "Kill Switch". When I first wrote about this feature, I thought it was the perfection solution for those of us who fear the prospect of the personal information on our smartphones falling into the wrong hands. But, for the first time, I was being asked to decide whether or not I wanted to opt-in to this feature - which, as my phone describes:
From Startup to IPO: Get The $$ You Need To Grow
A few weeks ago, I wrote a post giving an overview of the type of investors that will provide the funds for your entrepreneurial enterprise as you grow. This is a legal site, so I was very much focused on giving you the legal framework that governs who is allowed to invest in your company. But, Anna Vital's post goes one step further - it puts all this information in a context that you as a business owner will recognize. To do this, she shows the steps needed (as illustrated by the infographic below) to take a hypothetical startup from an amazing idea to being a public company.
What Every Business Owner Should Know About Commercial Leases
For some businesses (though not all), your location not only affects your customers’ ease in finding you, it “may be important for attracting talent, situating yourself strategically among complementary and competing companies, establishing your brand and so forth.” Your location will also affect the rent you currently pay and will pay in the future. So, it’s important to “keep an eye on the local office market to get a general idea of rental rate trends”.
Can We Prevent Spam AND Improve Email Marketing?
No doubt about it, spamming is a big problem! The offensive subject lines and email, the risk of spyware and malware… not to mention the fact that one errant click could give a hacker complete access to (and control of) your computer and everything you do on the internet. I’m probably being hyperbolic here but in my mind, spamming is a plague that must be purged!
3 Ways To Legally Protect Yourself During Business Negotiations
My way of thinking about business people and lawyers was validated by Adriana Gardella’s piece about how the owners from the She Owns It business group view the role of attorneys in negotiating with larger companies. While one business owner (Ms. Lord) said she “prefers to use her lawyer as little as possible on deals”, another (Ms. Blumin) noted that she could not take this approach because the larger companies she works with always have attorneys who step in and change the terms of the already agreed upon term sheet.
Can Your Business Pass this Legal Checkup?
As an attorney that specializes in finance and contracts, I hardly ever offer litigation-based solutions. Understanding my possible blind spot, I was happy to get a fresh take on the most important small business legal issues from Aileron.
Yes, NY Business Owners - The Medical Marijuana Law Affects You Too!
When I first heard about the proposal to legalize medical marijuana in NY, I asked an acquaintance who worked in the medical field about her thoughts on the matter. Her response was, “Well, it does a pretty good job of managing pain, plus it has fewer side effects than some of the narcotic-based pain killers (like Vicodin) that many patients currently use.” Of course we ended our conversation by exchanging stories about the extensive marijuana use we both witnessed in college.
Ok Entrepreneurs, Time To Meet Your Future Investors!
It is almost impossible to read a small business magazine or blog these days without finding an article about perfecting your pitch to investors. Heck, there is even a reality show about it! But who are these investors and why do so many entrepreneurs have to rely on them if they want to start or expand their business?
4 Easy Ways To Legally Protect Your Confidential Information From Investors
Did you know that it has now become almost uniform policy among Silicon Valley investors to NOT sign non-disclosure agreements (NDAs)? Some investors believe that as an entrepreneur, you should be willing to talk about your ideas with anyone who is willing to listen. Others believe it is simply a waste of time because, with NDAs, meetings are delayed by at least a week while lawyers review the contract Another factor is that some entrepreneurs like Ben Goodwin have come to realize that even if you have a signed NDA, it is difficult and expensive to enforce in the long run and as a small business owner, he simply does not have the have the legal and financial resources to expend on that.
Why The Govt. Intrusion Into How You Schedule YOUR Employees?
Many of you were probably like me in that you had to work at least part-time while you were in college. At that time, I was lucky enough to have employees how were more than willing to create schedules that would work around my academic needs. Now, I understand that not all managers are as accommodating. Heck, nothing irritates me more than seeing retail workers having to work on Thanksgiving because companies believe that getting a jump on Black Friday sales more important than having their employees spend time with family.
4 Legal Lessons From The Facebook Psych Experiment
When we sign up to use social media, we want to get access to the product they are offering so we couldn’t care less about the provisions they have in their Terms and Agreements. Now I know many of you are upset about the experiment Facebook’s psychological experiment “to learn about the way positive and negative effect travels through social networks”. However, as Gene Marks pointed out, their actions were completely legal… Facebook “can pretty much use your information however they'd like, even [to] conduct scientific studies with it.” We gave them this right when we hastily clicked “I agree” at the bottom of their Terms and Agreements (without even sparing a glance for the provision about privacy).
