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Articles to LIFT Your Life and Business

Business Succession Planning: Lessons Learned from the Lack of a Plan

A recent post in the New York Times’ “You’re The Boss” column reflected on lessons learned from difficult company successions that were made that way because there was no plan in place to follow. Susan Parker owns Bari Jay, a bridesmaid dress company that she and her sister inherited from their father.  Parker had never […]

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Tips to Avoid Age Discrimination Claims in Business Succession Planning

As the U.S. population ages, so does its workforce.  According to the U.S. Dept. of Labor, one-third of the American workforce will be over the age of 55 in just three years.  As a small business owner, chances are you have plans to retire some day.  If you are not planning to sell the business […]

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Rupert Murdoch Divorce Wake Up Call for Business Owners

Rupert Murdoch, the 82-year-old media mogul worth over $11 billion, has filed for divorce from his third wife, Wendi Deng, in New York.  Legal experts say that he has chosen the venue for his filing wisely, as New York courts are more likely to uphold a prenuptial agreement than those in his native Australia or […]

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The 4 Fatal Legal Mistakes Family Businesses Can Avoid With Planning

Anyone involved in a family business knows that working with family has its pleasures and its pitfalls –incurring these legal pitfalls can prove deadly to your family business, so here’s how to fix them: Mixing family & business finances. Unfortunately, we live in a litigious society, so as soon as your family business is up […]

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The Family Business: Avoid These 4 Lethal Legal Mistakes

If you operate a family-owned business, or are considering starting one up, there are four potentially lethal legal mistakes you should take care to avoid, including: No employment agreements.  Family members who work together are usually hesitant to confront one another if someone isn’t pulling their weight.  Having an employment agreement for everyone ensures that […]

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A Guide to the Disposition of Your Digital Assets Final

On April 11, Google introduced its Inactive Account Manager, which allows users to make a choice to either delete their data after a pre-determined length of account inactivity or to name heirs for the data from some of its most popular services, including +1s; Blogger; Contacts and Circles; Drive; Gmail; Google+ Profiles, Pages and Streams; […]

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How to Use Estate Planning Strategies to Transfer Business Interests

Planning for the transfer or liquidation of your business when you are ready to retire or when you die is just as important as the planning you did in starting up your small business.  Here are some tips from a Family Business Lawyer™ on how to use estate planning strategies to transfer your business interests: […]

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Why Estate Planning Matters for Small Business Owners

If you’re a small business owner, you undoubtedly spend countless hours juggling bills and balancing your books, not to mention all those extra hours you spend worrying about the future of the little business venture that grew and grew during the “good old days” before the recession that slammed small businesses. In fact, you’ve been […]

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The 4 Deadly Legal Mistakes Small Business Owners Need to Avoid

Small businesses dominate the American business landscape, but those that survive several generations are relatively rare.  If you are a small business owner, you need to be sure you are not committing any of these four deadly legal mistakes: Mixing personal and business finances. If your small business started as a hobby or a side […]

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How to Ensure Your Business Goes on Without You

If you have built a successful business and plan to leave it to your heirs or business partners, doing so is not a process that just happens naturally after you retire or die.  So if you don’t have a buy-sell agreement, a business succession plan, a business transition plan or a business preservation plan in […]

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How to Evaluate a Buyer for Your Small Business

Selling your business should be approached with the same attention to detail as when you started your business. There is nothing worse than wasting weeks of your time on a deal that will never go through because the buyer is not serious or does not have the cash to buy your business. Spend a little […]

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