Business Planning AttorneyDefining Objectives &
Pathways to Success

If you are an owner or stakeholder in a closely held business, you know the importance of maintaining smooth operations in the face of change. Though you cannot plan around every unexpected event, you can incorporate strategies designed to identify potential risks and develop solutions to mitigate those risks.

Likewise, retirement, disability, and death are circumstances that you must eventually confront, even if your health or age are not current concerns.

Not having a strategy in place can be devastating for the continuity and long-term survival of your company, if you are no longer able to manage your business, whether by choice or necessity.

We take pride in the fact that we have provided solid legal counsel, proven strategies, and well-crafted solutions to hundreds of organizations throughout the Orlando area and Central Florida.

A business has a life cycle, and a good business attorney can assist with customizing business planning strategies that align with your goals at different points along the way. It is important to address the needs and objectives of your company at certain milestones, transitional periods, or levels of growth. At the same time, you must recognize that unexpected events, uncertainty, and threats put your interests at risk.

Done properly, you can also take advantage of tax treatment that benefits you, your business, and the individuals who follow in your shoes. Some tools for achieving your goals include:

Buy-Sell Agreements: Businesses with multiple stakeholders should consider appropriate strategies for moving forward when one owner dies, becomes incapacitated, or wants to exit the organization. A buy-sell agreement is an effective method for handling the transition, especially when you do not want the departing individual’s interest to become controlled by the estate, heirs, or a buyer who is a stranger to the company. Buy-sell agreements provide a roadmap for transition and keeping ownership interests within the fold of the business and/or remaining stakeholders.

Key Person Planning: There are many reasons one particular employee or stakeholder may be critical to your business success, such as having specialized knowledge, business relationships, or contributions to reputation and goodwill. Losing this person can shatter your company, but key person planning can help you avoid or plan for the devastating implications.

Incapacitation Planning: Illness, injury, and other medical conditions can make it difficult or impossible for a business owner or stakeholder to perform the tasks necessary to meet the organization’s objectives. With incapacitation planning, you have a protocol that enables another person to step in and manage important company operations upon certain trigger events. Without it, the individual appointed as guardian or power of attorney in charge of the disabled person would also have control over your business affairs.

Business Succession Planning: Eventually want to exit your business. How will you do it? It is important you prepare your business to continue after you are gone. Effective business succession planning ensures you have control over who will take on company affairs, rather than having your interest pass to heirs or others who may not be as dedicated to it as you. Business succession planning is often incorporated into an estate plan through will, trusts, and other tools. In addition, business succession planning ensures you can plan for the next generation of stakeholders and ensure they have the necessary tools to take over running the business while you are still around to oversee the process.

Operating any organization carries with it an innate amount of risk, a business planning lawyer will help you identify and address challenges that you cannot predict. Even when the future is uncertain, effective business planning ensures that your company is prepared to tackle any contingencies you face.

Some of the areas in which our attorneys can offer legal support and counsel include:

• Tax implications that apply to different business formations.
• Developing sound employment policies to maintain compliance with federal and Florida law, and to reduce the risk of employment related litigation in the areas of discrimination, harassment, wage and hour disputes, and other issues.
• Negotiating and drafting employment contracts to protect your business interests, intellectual property, and trade secrets, such as through confidentiality and non-compete agreements.
• Assisting with licensing arrangements, so you do not run afoul of copyright and trademark laws.
• Reduce the likelihood of future contract disputesand litigation by drafting sound legal agreements regarding business associations, consulting arrangements, and relationships with contractors, vendors, suppliers, and other partners.
• Drawing up documents related to financing, loans, credit, and other arrangements to properly manage debt.
• Many other aspects of risk management for business.

The process focuses on how to allocate time, executive talent, funds, and other resources to pursue designated initiatives through the most efficient route. In some ways, strategic business planning is what comes after the start-up phase; when your goals are primarily growth and expansion. However, this aspect of planning can also provide essential support for businesses seeking to refocus efforts, reinvent themselves for new economic realities, rebrand their image, or launch into new market sectors.

The lawyers at Walsh Banks Law can assist with various aspects of strategic business planning, including:

• Helping you define and clarify short-and long-term objectives and the legal risks associated with those objectives.
• Identifying potential legal issues related to sales and marketing plans.
• Establishing legally sound tactics for attracting investor opportunities and managing relationships.
• Assessing legal issues related to approaches for expanding your company to leverage market opportunities.
• Evaluating legal implications of plans to streamline business operations.
• Long term tax and asset protection planning.

One of our key practice areas involves developing and implementing strategies for business growth and expansion. We can provide legal advice and solutions related to:

• Implementing debt financing tactics and/or equity restructuring to drive growth.
• Structuring joint ventures, licensing agreements, partnerships, and strategic alliances, including the associated negotiations and drafting of essential documents.
• Leveraging franchising opportunities.
• Strategies for business acquisitions.
• Risk management related all types of business formation.
• Many other related areas.

When the time is right in your organization’s life cycle, our knowledgeable lawyers can offer guidance on planning and applying business succession and exit strategies, such as:

• Transitions of business ownership to other stakeholders, key employees, and/or family members;
• External succession strategies, such as sales of your business, merger with another company, buy-sell agreements, public offerings, or implementation of employee stock option purchase plans.

Our lawyers have an established track record in the comprehensive suite of legal services we offer, and we are honored to have many satisfied clients with whom we maintain long-term relationships.

With decades of experience in both transaction law and business litigation, we are prepared to handle the various challenges and contingencies that a typical business will confront during its life cycle.

Our attorneys help small businesses beat the odds, while also supporting large organizations in meeting more expansive objectives.

Still, we are dedicated to providing the same custom-tailored representation you would expect from an in-house legal department.