How to Negotiate Temporary Commercial Rent Reductions If your business is suffering due to Coronavirus, the monthly rental payment on your business lease may not be manageable. Here's how to talk with your landlord. In this video, Patric McCallum, principal attorney of Drew|McCallum, and Wendy Bowser, Houston business [...]
Top 5 Tips to Make Your PPP Business Loan Forgivable Have you applied for a Payroll Protection Program (PPP) loan? Have you received PPP loan funds? Are you waiting on PPP loan approval? Or are you thinking about applying for a PPP loan? If so, you undoubtedly have [...]
COVID-19 Effects on Divorce, Child Support, and Parenting Time Has COVID-19 wrecked your parenting time plan, your child support, or your marriage? Are you concerned this might happen? If so, you are not alone. The 3 most common family law questions we field are: Can I get a [...]
Stop Procrastinating on these 8 Business Policies Procrastination: never do today what you can put off until tomorrow. Most of us have a love/hate relationship with procrastination. It can fuel our creativity and clarify goals. It can also cripple our task lists and raise our blood pressure. When do [...]
6 Steps to Hiring Your First Employee It's time to hire your first employee. So, how do you do that? There are multiple steps involved, all with different state law, federal law, and regulatory compliance requirements. You can spend hours (even days) researching and trying to figure it [...]
With the New Tax Plan, Will You Need to Re-Think Your Corporate Structure? With the passage of the new tax plan, you might be re-thinking your entity choice and corporate structure. Significant changes are coming into play for LLC's, S-Corps, and C-Corps. These changes impact traditional benefits of each [...]
What is "Fired For Cause?" It's Time to Check Your Contracts and Policies "Fired for Cause" - what does that mean? This question came up in an interesting article about the recent firing by Texas A&M of its head football coach Kevin Sumlin. Arkansas Athletic Director Hunter Yurachek said, [...]
I'm Thinking About Divorce - What Now? You're up nights thinking about divorce. You can't sleep. You're not doing well at work. You don't know what to do. Can your relationship be saved? Divorce is such an ugly word, but there seems to be no avoiding it. [...]
Our Business Was Awarded to Me in Our Divorce Decree - What Now? So you've divorced and your business was awarded to you in the divorce decree. Now what? Many people believe the divorce decree is all that's needed to handle transfer of ownership. The truth is there is [...]
Prenup and Postnup Agreements - What Do They Do? Have you wondered about prenup or postnup agreements and what they are? You may have wondered whether you need a prenup agreement. Or, you may be thinking about starting a business and wondered if you need a postnup agreement [...]
Estate Planning - Wills, Powers of Attorney and Deeds - Oh My! It's nearing the end of the year, a great time to get your will and personal papers in order. Instead of using your new-year's resolution to remind you to do this next year, do it now! It's [...]
Questions about Non-Compete Agreements? Start Here We are frequently asked questions about non-compete agreements. First, what are they? Second, are they enforceable? Third, what are the requirements? This article is a short introduction to non-compete agreements. What Is A Non-Compete Agreement? A non-compete agreement is an agreement between [...]
Considering Franchises? Need Help Buying or Selling a Franchise? Start Here Franchises are a great way to start a new business. Owners are called franchisors. Investors are called franchisees. The business is established and systems are already developed. The brand is known in the community, and the franchisor typically [...]
3 Best Practices when Recording Business Calls It can be tricky legal business to legally record business telephone calls, especially if your business operates in more than one state. Houston Methodist Hospital was sued by a doctor who alleges that the hospital system illegally recorded patients' phone calls [...]
Employer Searches of Workplace Areas. Employers' searches of employee work areas are on the rise. With concerns of theft of company property and information, securing an employee's computer, work station, and work area are important. So, when is it permissible to search an employee's work area, how is it [...]
Preventing Employee Theft of Company Property and Information Theft of company property and information by employees is a growing concern among businesses. While working for your company, employees have daily access to information about the way your business operates, software it uses, customer information, vendor information, financial and banking [...]