Business

If your customers send purchase orders when they buy your product, you may be agreeing to contract terms you don’t even know about. The scariest part… you might have your own term sheet you send along with your product, and still be agreeing to different terms in the final contract. And if you are the one sending the purchase order… you aren’t really any better off. Welcome to the battle of the forms.

The thing to do in marketing these days is move online. Every year, more and more businesses are launching websites and turning from expensive paper mail campaigns to cheaper email advertising. Customers, for their part, have gotten increasingly frustrated with the amount of junk in their inboxes, and Congress has listened. Before you click that send button, make sure you are aware of the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003.

This time of year is a good time to talk about one of the basic differences between a corporation and an LLC – pass through taxation. Pass through taxation means that the IRS ignores a business entity when collecting taxes and instead takes full payment from the owners on all the business’s income. Pass through taxes can give owners a big surprise on their 1040s at the end of the year, but is still often preferable to the double taxes paid by corporations.

The last thing anyone wants to do is end up in Court.  Going to court is expensive, time consuming and can also be very stressful.  But sometimes the courts are the best place to defend your rights and the rights of your business.  A court of law can force parties to honor their contracts or make them pay for breaching.  A court of law can stop competitors from selling cheap knock-offs or copying your intellectual property.  A court of law can send a message to customers, vendors, partners or competitors that your business needs to be treated with respe