Entity Formation & Maintenance

Forming your business entity at Weygandt Law is not one size fits all and is never handled in a vacuum. If you wanted once size fits all, you could use a document drafting service or online legal document website.

Before we form your entity, we get to know you, what’s important to you, what your business is going to do in the world and how you plan to exit it. We ask you questions that will inform us of the tax structure of your entity, how you own the entity and what happens to your business entity when you pass on (or you pass the company on to a new owner).

We ask you the questions so you do not worry that you don’t know the right questions to ask. And then we discuss your options with you in a way that allows you to know you are making informed decisions about:

✔ Where to form your entity (Nevada, Delaware, Wyoming or here in Texas, your home state are all options);

✔ What type of entity to form (LLC, S-Corporation, LLC taxed as an S-Corporation, Partnership, or C-Corporation are the most likely options we will consider);

✔ How to set up your bank accounts, what type of insurance to get, which agreements you need immediately (and which can wait), which intellectual property to protect (and whether to own it in a separate entity from your operating assets), how much and what type of insurance you need, how to work with your CPA for max tax savings and more.

We see the formation of your business entity as just the beginning of a long-term relationship in which we are able to become the trusted counselor you turn to for help with all of your business decisions.

Think about it this way – Warren Buffett doesn’t just turn to Charlie Munger (his personal business lawyer) for help incorporating his business entities, he turns to Charlie before entering into any business deal that will impact the bottom line. That’s the type of relationship we have with our clients.

Maintaining Your Business Entity – Compliance & So Much More

At most business planning law firms the relationship ends when you sign your incorporation documents. At Weygandt Law we see the signing your incorporation documents as the beginning of our relationship with your business.

Over time, your business will change and grow; your ownership structure may change; we know for sure that the law will change. Your business documents must accommodate all of these changes in order to make sure your business is on track for growth and continued success.

If your business does not have annual meetings, maintain meeting minutes, have agreements, and is not properly updated and maintained over time, your legal documents become worthless - - worth no more than the paper they were printed on.

And the costs of failing to update your legal documents regularly are typically far greater than keeping everything current.

To help you make sure your entity is maintained properly, we offer Weygandt Law Business Growth Membership Programs.

Our membership programs are designed so we can proactively monitor the activities of your business on a monthly, quarterly or bi-annual basis. By doing this, we can stay on top of your business’ legal, insurance, financial and tax details so you can relax and be more creative, more expansive and live more into the possibilities for your business knowing everything else is handled.

For more information about our unique programs, please contact us at (713) 489-5900 OR by email at info@WeygandtLaw.com.

Turning Intellectual Property Into Profits

Your Ideas Are Valuable

 Like most business owners, we imagine you are frequently coming up with new ideas for product lines, businesses, programs and services. But, how do you know what to move forward with, what goes in the someday maybe pile and what should be acted upon immediately?

Having a trusted, objective advisor to run those questions by is a great idea. But who can you trust to give you unbiased, smart, thoughtful guidance? Us.

In fact, running your visionary plans by your business lawyer is the very best thing you could do – Warren Buffet’s no dummy and he runs every deal by his personal business lawyer, Charlie Munger, before saying yes to a new possibility. You see, as your personal business lawyer, we can help you make the decision about whether to move forward with a potential deal or new revenue stream within the context of your overall business objectives PLUS we can ensure that any new deal is properly documented and your intellectual property is protected.

From trademarks, to copyrights, and protection of your branding, systems, and processes, we will help you determine what really is protection-worthy with a full out registration with the United States Patent & Trademark Office (or other international jurisdictions) and what can benefit from a simple, easy and free stake of your claim.

When you participate in one of our Business Growth Membership Programs, we will regularly connect with you to discover any new websites you have registered, new ideas you have had crop up, or new content you have created so we can ensure it’s all been protected to the maximum that makes sense and your ideas are safe and sound so you can make the most of them in the world.

Plus, if and when one of your trademarks or copyrights are infringed upon (meaning someone else out there is using something you have staked a claim to), we’ll make contact on your behalf, not in a traditional crabby lawyer way, but in such a way that it opens up a dialogue and even the possibility for future collaboration.

That’s because we’re all about helping you do business in a new paradigm way that focuses a lot more on collaboration than competition while still allowing you to set clear boundaries and stake your claim to your brilliant ideas.

You like it? If so, you might want to contact us about our foundation session (Start-Up & Set Up) or our framework session (Strategy for Existing Businesses) – there aren’t too many lawyers out here in the world like us and our calendars do fill up quickly. Contact our office at 713-489-5900 or info@WeygandtLaw.com for availability.

Insurance

Says I Love You, No Really!

Yep, you read that right – insurance really does say I love you. You have insurance because you love your family, your partners, your clients, and ultimately yourself. Let me explain.

When you have the right type and amount of insurance, you can relax knowing that whatever comes up, is handled.

As a business owner, you need to consider general business insurance, professional liability insurance, employment practices insurance, special events insurance, and more. You also need to consider personal lines of insurance, such as insurance to care for your home, your vehicles, your income, and most importantly to insure your life, to care for your family and partner should anything happen to you.

It can be very easy to be persuaded to buy too much insurance or the wrong kind of insurance by high pressure insurance sales people who get paid big commissions or conversely to not get enough or overlook an important type of insurance because the insurance professional you are working with is more of an order taker than a consultant or advisor.

We will support you to get just the right amount and type of insurance in place by recommending a trusted insurance advisor if you do not already have one, reviewing what you already do have in place, and being the trusted counselor you can turn to for an objective, third party review of your coverage – we do not get paid a commission on your insurance, so you can trust our unbiased guidance.

During our audit leading up to our framework session, we will review your insurance and either confirm you are set up right with the right amounts and types of insurance, or make recommendations if there are holes. During our foundation session, we will discuss insurance so you know what you need and who to contact to get it all set up right. Contact our office at 713-489-5900 or info@WeygandtLaw.com for more information.

Hiring & Firing

Hiring and firing team members is the single most expensive part of your business, bar none. And most entrepreneurs simply have no idea how to go about it, not just from a legal perspective, but from a how to run your business perspective.

We can help you hire right, train smart and fire when necessary so that you keep as much time and money in your business as possible.

You’ve heard the saying, “hire slow and fire fast”, right? Well that makes a whole lot of sense when you have the right legal processes for hiring and firing in place. If you don’t, well this can be a sticky, tricky area. In fact, hiring and firing could very well be the biggest risk area in your business.

What are some of the risks?

Well there’s a whole lot you need to know about when it comes to how you hire – what you can say and not say, what you can ask and must never ask, how to set up payroll, designate team members as independent contractors or employees, and of course, how to fire.

Hiring and firing team members is your greatest area of risk in your business. We mitigate that risk.

If you’d like for us to review of your employee agreements, employee handbook or independent contractor agreements, contact us 713-489-5900 or info@WeygandtLaw.com.

Money matters

When it comes to money, most business owners are dealing with it one of two ways – you either micro- manage your books and use your financial reports as a crystal ball that allows you to predict the future OR you manage your financials by going to the ATM and checking your balance.

How do you handle money in your business? Do you have a strong relationship with your CPA, bookkeeping team, your controller?

Do you have multiple entities and is the cash flowing between those entities properly?

Need financing for your business? Properly tracking loans you’ve made to the business? Capital contributions? Has the business loaned you money? Each of these situations has legal and tax impacts that we help you navigate.

These are the money matters we help you with.

Tax Strategies Saves you big bucks

When your tax situation is structured right, you could be paying less than 10% of your income in taxes. Yes, less than 10%. Or, you could pay as much as 50% of your income in taxes.

Strategic planning makes the difference.

While we are not tax advisors, this is another one of those things we will support you with by ensuring you are meeting regularly with your CPA (and even meet with your CPA with you on our higher level Business Growth Membership Programs), that you understand the tax strategies that are being recommended and you are able to make decisions about sometimes complex issues.

You can look to us to make saving money on taxes easy to understand and, most importantly, easy to take action on.