What is to be done in such cases? When debt needs collection, it is required to avoid violent confrontations and use tactics that allow you and the payee to solve the problem with a good settlement. Bosserman Law small business attorneys are available to help small business owners recollect their owed debt and keep their business functioning in harmony.

What To Do When Your Clients Have Unpaid Invoices?

Send a Demand Letter

Before hiring a collection agency, ask your attorney to draft up a demand letter for the payable amount to your company.

Lawyer up or Hire a Collection Agency

When the above fails, you can try revisiting your contract to try and persuade the client with an arbitration clause, if you don’t have the arbitration clause, you should pursue this through legal procedures. Bosserman Law can guide you through what measures there are to be taken to reclaim the money that your client owes you.

You can also consider hiring a collection agency. There are a number of things to consider when hiring a collection agency. First of all, you should ask the people you trust and know to point you in the right direction. Getting a collection agency that has dealt with similar cases as your own business can be helpful, as they know how to approach such cases better than the business owners themselves.

Collection Agency Procedures

There are two ways the collection agencies work:

They can work with you to help recover the debt that the customer’s owe you, for a retainer of course, normally 30% of the owed debt or the company can buy the debt from you for a lower price and can help you get rid of the client instantly. This depends on the business owner as to how they want to approach the situation, they can put in the effort and fight for the debt or just let the company sort it out after selling it off.

Winning A Judgment

After you have won a judgment, and it still needs to be paid by a client who is in another state, you will need to hire a lawyer in the client’s state and enforce the judgment through legal means. Once again, you have the option of selling the debt to the collection agency and be done with it.

After winning the judgment, it is possible that the Agency’s price for buying the debt would be higher than if you were trying to sell the debt without settlement.

Consultation with your attorney on this matter is the key and they can help you make the better decision when considering selling your debt or not.

For further assistance in the matter, search for Bosserman Law in Southaven and get paid today.

The post Debt Collection Assistance for Small Businesses appeared first on Kelly Bosserman Law.

While it doesn’t have to be a written document, taking the time to put the terms of employment black on white can pay off down the road. A written employment contract provides clarity and protects you from situations that could spell trouble for your business.

Read on to discover four clauses that you should always include in an employment contract.

1. Defining the Basic Terms of the Agreement

You should always list the following basic information: a) the name of the employer; b) the name of the employee; c) the job title; d) the duration of the employment; e) the place and hours of work; and f) the starting date.

A lot of this information might seem obvious, but writing it out in simple language ensures that the employee fully understands and agrees to the basic conditions of employment. Writing down the starting date will also make it clear when the rights and duties of each party to the contract come into effect.

2. Setting Out Duties and Responsibilities

You should always set out in clear language the main duties and responsibilities the job entails. This will ensure that you and your new employee are both on the same page, and will avoid many potential arguments about what the position does or doesn’t involve. You cannot argue with what’s written down in plain English.

3. Salary and Benefits

Everyone wants to get paid, so setting out wages and benefits is a crucial aspect of any employment contract. Besides setting out the basic wage, frequency and method of payment, you should also list any other benefits – such as the number of paid holidays and insurance – that will form part of the employee’s compensation package

4. Termination

Thinking about firing someone isn’t fun, especially when your new employee hasn’t even started. Unfortunately, things can go wrong despite everyone’s best intentions. Setting out clear grounds for termination and severance terms at the outset can go a long way towards making the process as painless as possible should the need arise.

Do you need to draft an employment contract but aren’t sure where to start? Get in touch to set up an appointment with our employment specialists.

The post 4 Must-Have Employee Contract Essentials appeared first on Kelly Bosserman Law.

There are also plenty of things that keep you up at night.

One of those sleep-depriving concerns is the fear of being sued. Even a modest lawsuit can rack up expensive legal bills that can severely harm a small business – perhaps force it into bankruptcy.

At the risk of minimizing the serious nature of a lawsuit – and pardon me for grasping for a sports metaphor, but – sometimes the best defense is a good offense.

Take proactive steps to help your business avoid finding it situations that can lead to lawsuits. The big headline is pretty obvious: do things right, treat people properly and try to rectify any problems swiftly.

Beyond that, here are a few helpful and specific things you can do to avoid lawsuits and to give yourself the tools you need to resolve lawsuits quickly should you face one.

Document Everything

Most legal actions that occur against small business generally concern some manner of contract or agreement dispute. The solution: take copius notes of all discussions and ensure all contracts are signed and witnessed.

Create an Employee Handbook

It’s difficult to hold employees accountable for their at-work actions if you have no document that establishes what their actions should and should not consist of. When you give a new employee a handbook, don’t forget tip number one: sign a document that states that your employee received and read their handbook!

Understand Intellectual Property Laws

Companies covet their logo, tagline and associated branding. And rightly so! Take a moment to study your logo imagery and ensure it does not violate any existing trademarks.

To compare your company’s logo and branding imagery with existing copyrighted material, you can do a quick search of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office website.

Properly Maintain your Workspace

The likelihood of injury lawsuits from customers and employees can be dramatically reduced by taking a few common sense but vitally important steps toward maintaining your environment.

Keep walkways clear and free of debris, standing water or ice.

Ensure that storage rooms are stocked carefully to minimize spills or falls.

Fill parking lot potholes and keep outdoor spaces clean, safe and well-lit.

Communicate

Many times, the most effective tool you can employ to avoid a potential lawsuit is an open and frank conversation. A conversation regarding the issue may be uncomfortable, but it will certainly be less expensive and time-consuming than resolving a lawsuit.

Don’t lose sleep over things you can control. Take these steps to help your company avoid a lawsuit. For more tips – or for advice and representation in the event your business is sued – contact us today at Bosserman Law.

The post Getting Sued Can Be Big Trouble for Small Businesses. appeared first on Kelly Bosserman Law.

Congratulations!

It’s a noble idea, a thrilling and fulfilling pursuit – and a lot of work.

But I’m here to help.

There are a number of legal issues associated with starting a business that vary from seemingly insignificant (the operative word here is “seemingly”) to daunting and worrisome.

A lawyer can help.

While you focus on getting your start-up started up, I or any experienced business lawyer can help to ensure those seemingly insignificant items are tended to and that those worrisome items are no worry at all.

As you progress toward business ownership, here is a sampling of the types of things we can assist you with here at Bosserman Law.

1. Naming your Business.

We’ll perform thorough copyright investigations to ensure that the name you love for your business won’t infringe upon an existing trademark or copyright.

2. Choosing the Right Corporate Structure.

We can help protect each party within a partnership, offer the pros and cons of sole proprietorship vs. a corporation, and help to ensure your personal finances are protected from business creditors.

3. Assembling a board of directors.

We can offer insight and advice, conduct interviews and perform background checks to help you feel confident that you’re putting the best possible team together.

4. Mediation.

Should anything go wrong between you and a trusted partner, we can act as a mediator to help resolve the conflict as quickly and painlessly as possible before the trouble has time to severely compromise the success of the business.

I ask that you don’t read the list above as any kind of warning. The last thing I’d want to do is type anything into this computer that would deter you from chasing your dream.

However, understand that Bosserman Law is experienced and prepared to assist you in overcoming the challenges you’ll face as you start a new business. And we’re looking forward to the day we’ll celebrate with you as you toast to your new business’ grand opening!

Call us today to schedule a preliminary consultation so that we get to better know you and the plan for your new business.

The post Avoid Big Problems in Your Small Business. appeared first on Kelly Bosserman Law.