Talk radio advertises inexpensive forms to help you in your new start-up company.    The forms are probably okay, but without actual legal advice you may leave out some critical elements of qualifying your new company to do business.   If you have a corporation, do you have by-laws as well as articles of incorporation?  Do you know you need to do start-up minutes of the board of directors and start-up shareholder minutes?  These are called "first meeting" minutes.  After that you need minutes of both, every year.  

If you choose to use an LLC (limited liability company), do you have an operating agreement as well as your articles of organization?  Do you have a statement of ownership interest to be sure that all of the owners have agreed as to what their share of ownership is?  Many companies don't think about this until there is a problem, and then it may be too late to avoid a problem or a dispute. 

Do you have a clear understanding about whether the owners will take a salary?  Do you have a clear understanding of what happens to your company if an owner dies?  What if an owner gets a divorce? Will your company end up in a divorce court as an asset being fought over like child custody?  

Have you been made verbal promises by your "partners" or co-owners about certain very important matters?  Why aren't these understandings in writing?
 

A lawyer may seem expensive, but in the long run, the old saying, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" is nowhere as true as in starting a your company.  

If you choose to use an LLC (limited liability company), do you have an operating agreement as well as your articles of organization?  Do you have a statement of ownership interest to be sure that all of the owners have agreed as to what their share of ownership is?  Many companies don't think about this until there is a problem, and then it may be too late to avoid a problem or a dispute. 

Do you have a clear understanding about whether the owners will take a salary?  Do you have a clear understanding of what happens to your company if an owner dies?  What if an owner gets a divorce? Will your company end up in a divorce court as an asset being fought over like child custody?  

Have you been made verbal promises by your "partners" or co-owners about certain very important matters?  Why aren't these understandings in writing?
 

A lawyer may seem expensive, but in the long run, the old saying, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" is nowhere as true as in starting a your company.  

Have you ever had an employee ask for a share of a patent or invention he created while working for you at your company?

These are common employees have and are common questions asked by employers to their lawyers. What rights do employers have to employee ideas? What right do employees have to be compensated for these ideas?
The common law concept is sometimes called “shop rights”. An employee sells her time to her employer and gets paid. All work and ideas given by the employee to the employer belong to the employer – that is, “shop rights”.

An employer is wise to anticipate jobs from which they anticipate creative ideas being generated and make a policy that deals with them. Employers can have employees sign an agreement that says the employee may get a bonus or a percentage of any patents or innovative ideas. Both employee and employer should be careful about listing any ideas, patents, or inventions that the employee had before becoming an employee to avoid conflicts in the future.