OMG AT 2:00 A.M.

At some time or another, most business owners have awakened in a panic – or similar emotion – in the middle of the night thinking about:

• What might happen if I am unable to continue to run my business?
• What might happen if a key employee leaves my business?
• Is my business really saleable?
• What if I lose a key customer?

There is no best solution or answer to any one of these questions, but putting a plan in place and working on the business from time to time, rather than working in the business, is a start. That plan should include:

• Making sure that the business’s agreements are legally sound and protect the business’s interests, and if they don’t exist, developing them;
• Ensuring the corporate and organizational formalities such as minutes of meetings are up to date;
• Executing agreements with key employees to establish structures to incent them to stay even during and following periods of challenging change;
• Evaluating the business’s insurance portfolio to make sure it appropriately covers risks to key tangible assets or from litigation;
• Determining whether its intellectual property, whether in the form of trade secrets, customer lists, inventions, website content, slogans, logos or trademarks are protected by the appropriate legal structures.

Lawyers certainly play a pivotal role in helping business owners avoid this type of startling interruption of sleep, but experts from other disciplines have to be part of the team that helps the business plan for change and for the inevitable succession in ownership and management that time will bring. At Hymson Goldstein & Pantiliat, PLLC we can assemble a multi-disciplinary team that is responsive to the needs, goals and desires of various businesses and their owners and their unique situations and circumstances. We can help plan for succession or for sale. After all, Our Business is Your Peace of Mind ^®.

Written by Attorney David B. Goldstein,dbg@hgplaw.com

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