The best time to make decisions regarding how to exit a business venture is at the beginning, especially if the business is to have more than one owner. Why? Because, although this my seem a little cynical, it is in all likelihood precisely the time when the soon-to-be business partners will be most closely aligned [...]
My husband and I are in the early process of purchasing a business. After some searching, a couple hints from a friend and a newspaper article in the Des Moines Register we stumbled on the Targeted Small Business program offered through the Iowa Department of Inspection and Appeals and the Iowa Department of Economic Development. The TSB [...]
In a national study entitled "Value of Third-Party Debt Collection to the U.S. Economy in 2007: Survey and Analysis" , which was conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers and commissioned by ACA International, it was determined that in 2007 the collection industry was able to return $40 billion in bad debt back to large and small businesses that had previously extended [...]
Mechanic's Liens are a valuable tool used by contractors to help insure that they are fully compensated for the materials they supply and the improvements that they make to buildings or land. However, if you are a contractor providing materials or making improvements to an "owner-occupied" dwelling, essentially a residential remodeling contractor, then the mechanic's lien that you file may not be worth much more than [...]
The Iowa Court of Appeals recently had before it a sad (sad for the child that was injured and sad for the dog) and somewhat surprising dog-bite case in which they decided that a fact question was created, necessitating further review, when a landlord had knowledge that a dog had a propensity towards violence and yet that landlord allowed the dog to remain on the property. The abbreviated facts [...]
Julie Elgar of That’s What She Said uses the employees of The Office to illustrate the pervasiveness of internet use in the workplace. Elgar recognizes that unmonitored internet usage can lead to a decline of productivity and even worse harassment among employees. What should employers do? As Elgar says it’s important to develop a monitoring system and inform the employees [...]
