Advice for New Business Owners

In giving advice to anyone who is an owner or manager of a business, first and foremost what I want to say to them is try to get to a lawyer as soon as you can. The sooner you get to a lawyer the sooner you’re going to get the advice. The biggest mistakes that business owners make, they think they are just the smartest people in the world because they own businesses, and they tend to be wonderful businessmen and businesswomen. So they sit back and say, “Well, if I can run a successful business, I bet I have all of the answers.” They don’t have all the answers, especially when it comes to the law. So what we want them to do is get to us quickly, so they don’t make these kind of mistakes: Start sending emails they shouldn’t send, faxes they shouldn’t send, writing letters they shouldn’t send, making calls and leaving voice mails they shouldn’t send. The communications early on become very important, and all too often, we get caught, as they say, between a rock and a hard spot when we find out, “Oh my goodness, why did you send that email?” Because that email becomes the killer in the case. So first thing to a business owner, be careful what you write, or what you communicate to someone else. Get to a lawyer first, you won’t make that mistake.