Jim Borchers | Blog for Business Law

— By Jim BorchersDecember 13, 20131 Comment

Sole Owner LLC – Is Your Liability Really Limited?

You are proud of yourself. You went on-line at the Secretary of State’s website and filed your Articles of Organization. This means that you have limited your personal liability right? Well … maybe. People rarely understand that what they do AFTER filling Articles of Organization is…

Business Law

— By Jim BorchersDecember 5, 20131 Comment

Leases – Reasonable Wear and Tear Excepted

Every commercial lease has a sentence that reads like this: “… at the end of the lease term, the Tenant must return the leased premises to the Landlord in the same condition as when the lease term began, normal wear and tear excepted.” Sounds pretty…

Real Estate Law

— By Jim BorchersSeptember 12, 20130 Comments

The Lease Always Comes Last … Unless You Ask

You love to shop … or maybe you don’t. But in either event we have to buy things to survive. In your business you routinely make purchase decisions, large and small. Here’s a business purchase quiz for you: Have you ever negotiated a critical purchase…

Business Law LLCs

— By Jim BorchersJuly 30, 20131 Comment

Dinosaurs are NOT Extinct

Dinosaurs are extinct right? Well, not in the business world. There’s a dinosaur still in our midst known as the limited partnership. In reviewing loan documents for a local lender I uncovered what should have been a fossil, but alas, it was still living. Limited…

Business Law

— By Jim BorchersJune 13, 20130 Comments

Saving Expensive Legal “Check-Ups”

Are you tired of being told to get check-ups? If you’re a corporation you need an annual check-up with your attorney for those annual meeting minutes. Remember an empty minute book may terminate your limited liability (i.e. you become personally liable for your corporation’s debts…

— By Jim BorchersJanuary 28, 20132 Comments

Buying Your First Building

You’ve decided to buy instead of rent. You found a building you couldn’t refuse in today’s market. Now you can stop paying the landlord and generate some equity. But who should own it? It sounded simple when you decided to buy, but suddenly there are…

— By Jim BorchersJanuary 22, 20133 Comments

Do LLC’s Have “Corporate Formalities”?

You just formed a new LLC and your attorney says, “We recommend an annual retainer; and for this retainer we serve as your registered agent and assure that you meet the necessary ‘company formalities.'” Before you write that check allow us to give you a…

— By Jim BorchersJanuary 8, 20131 Comment

Voting by Email – A Risky Proposition For Non-Profits

Email can save us from meetings, round robin telephone calls, faxes and conference calls. It’s especially time saving when we want to avoid the traditional meeting for something that seems so simple or mundane. We avoid getting in the car driving to a meeting just…

— By Jim BorchersDecember 6, 20120 Comments

Leases: Limiting Your Risk & Understanding Your Personal Guarantee

Have you ever read your lease? Of course you read the parts about paying rent, the term and your option to renew. But you probably sped by the indemnification and insurance provisions. You ran it all by your insurance agent and she “took care of…

— By Jim BorchersAugust 20, 20123 Comments

Doing Business As a Corporation? You’re Living in the Past

So, your family business has been a corporation forever. All these years you’ve been dutifully filing your annual report with the Missouri Secretary of State’s office along with your annual fee; and filing the mandatory annual franchise tax return (even though you don’t owe any…