FAQs Business & Landlord/Tenant
I'm starting a business/non-profit, can't I just used Legal Zoom?
Well, you can use legal zoom to incorporate. That said, you won’t get the expertise of a lawyer sitting down and creating your documents custom tailored to your needs. When I sit down with clients looking to form a new business, whether that be non-profit or for-profit, I discuss your business operations and future goals. From there, I can properly craft the document to meet your needs, being broad enough to allow you to grow, and still protecting you.
Legal zoom will get you a boiler plate template. I can compare it to ordering a tuxedo for your wedding online and not getting any tailoring done. It’s the biggest day of you’re life, and your leaving it to chance that the Tuxedo you picked online will fit just right. There’s a chance it may fit perfect, but odds are, it will need at least a little tailoring to fit the way you want it, and there’s an off chance that it’s going to need some major work to not look like a Frankenstein suit.
Just like the tuxedo, you may get exactly what you need from legal zoom, or you may need it tailored, and if you don’t know how to tailor, you’ll be out of luck.
Plus, in using a lawyer, you'll have someone looking at your business setup and operations to help make suggestions on other legal contracts of liability limiting tactics you can employ. Additionally, if anything goes wrong with using a document from legal zoom, you'll have no one to ask questions to or go back to regarding the matter. Some of what a lawyer provides is someone you can reach out to in case there is ever and issue or change needed.
I'm using an independent contractor, but I'm not sure if they should really be an employee. As long as I'm not paying them a salary, I'm okay, right?
Well, not exactly. Just because you are paying them hourly, or not in the form of a salary, that doesn’t mean that under the eyes of the law, they are not viewed as an employee. There are specific regulations and questions the IRS has put out to help you determine if your contractor should really be an employee. This line is sometimes tough to judge and a variety of business disciplines run into the same problem.
I'm happy tp advise you on this topic and help you make the call, depending on your specific business and situation. Id you do indeed have a contractor, it's best to enter into a contract with them and I can help draw that up for you. Language in an independent contractor contract need to be very specific. Including certain language or phrasing can turn them into an employee under the eyes of the law.