Business Strategy

RSS Link

Intellectual property (IP) is commonly thought to confront technical matters that require a certain amount of scientific or engineering background in order to wrap one’s head around them. In actuality, IP is a diverse ecosystem of intangible property rights that offer extreme value.

Virtually all businesses have some type of IP at play, but they may fail to recognize it if they have a misunderstanding of what IP exactly is. Furthermore, they may fail to take the steps necessary…
Continue Reading The Business Practitioner’s Quick Guide to Intellectual Property

We help people with contracts that buy and sell their products and their businesses, license their products and their intellectual property, and lots of other things that lead to the question of “What do I charge?” Our first answer tends to be “That’s more of a business question than a legal question.” But that answer doesn’t fit our goal of “Be the reason it works.” And to completely bail on the question doesn’t accurately reflect that it is partially…
Continue Reading A Question of Price

Posted on February 27, 2024 in Business Law
Debt collection is a critical issue for many businesses, as unpaid debts can significantly impact a company’s cash flow and its overall financial health. While many businesses prefer to resolve debt collection issues out of court through negotiations or payment plans, there are some cases where litigation may be necessary. Filing a lawsuit or enforcing a judgment can be a complex process, but it can ensure that the financial interests of…
Continue Reading When Will Businesses Need to Use Litigation to Collect Debts in Wisconsin?

Documents Search
File Stack and Magnifying Glass

(part 2 of 3)

This post is the second part in a series on the Corporate Transparency Act. Feel free to check out Part 1 here. The last post talked about how a beneficial owner under the Corporate Transparency Act (Act) can be any individual who exercises “substantial control” over the company. This post focuses on the second requirement: “any individual who, directly or indirectly, owns or controls at least 25% of the ownership interests in the company.”…
Continue Reading The Corporate Transparency Act is Here. Now What About Ownership Interests?

The Corporate Transparency Act (the “CTA”) is a federal law with a filing requirement for almost every corporation, limited liability company, and limited partnership. The CTA requires that a Beneficial Ownership Information Report (the “Initial Report”) be filed by the Reporting Company with FinCEN, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, a bureau of the U.S. Treasury. Failure to comply with the CTA’s reporting requirements can result in significant civil and criminal penalties.

The due date for the Initial Report for…
Continue Reading What You Need To Know About The Corporate Transparency Act

Private equity firms are eating up physician practices, and they are not slowing down. According to a recent report from the American Antitrust Institute (hereinafter the AAI Report), private equity acquisitions of physician practices increased from 75 deals in 2012 to 484 deals in 2021. In some urban areas, a private equity firm might own 30% or more of the physician practices, which reduces competition and as studies are showing, increases prices for consumers.

Private equity ownership of physician…
Continue Reading Should Physicians Sell their Practices to Private Equity Investors?

After a long hiatus from this blog, I decided it was time to revisit S-Corps. If you are unfamiliar with S-Corps, go check out Collin’s first and second posts on S-Corps, which provide helpful context. With the foundation laid for the basics of S-Corps,  we can turn to the main focus of this post: electing to be taxed as an S-Corp and maintaining that status.

The election part is relatively easy. File Form 2553 with the IRS. Assuming the…
Continue Reading Checking in on S-Corps

Remember the earlier post by Business Accelerator’s Amanda HarNess about the connection between trust and leadership? If not, go back and read it. Beyond lack of trust, there are other areas where leadership breaks down. Amanda gives us questions to consider whenever leadership is changing for an organization. And, unprodded by me, she recommends building a strategic plan to help guide everyone through. We all know how much I love a strategic plan.

Top 9 areas of breakdown during…
Continue Reading Top 9 Areas of Breakdown During Changes in Leadership

When buying a company, buyers often value them lower than what sellers think they are worth.  This is a natural and expected “tug of war” that goes on with most acquisitions.  It is rare that the parties agree on the value of a company without some negotiation.

Third party financing also plays a significant role.  When buyers seek a loan from a seasoned bank, the bank is likely to lend money mainly on the value of hard assets of…
Continue Reading Buying A Business – “They’re Asking How Much?!”

https-images-squarespace-cdn-com-content-v1-605d7c1bb11ec0469bd9b7ce-1653054487787-vxai98l4nttlbk4nm27n-unsplash-image-fxzceptnamq-jpgformat1000w

Because of the phenomenon of anchoring, exposure to an initial number can have enduring effects on later decisions. Learn how this aspect of cognition can help or hinder your work as a lawyer.

This piece was first published in the Wisconsin Lawyer magazine.
Who would imagine that sentencing decisions could be affected by rolling dice? Who knew that a judge’s compensatory-damages award might be reduced if the defendant makes a nonserious motion to dismiss? Is the conventional wisdom that…
Continue Reading Understanding Anchoring

In our last article, we reviewed why creating a buy-sell agreement can protect the owners of a company and help guide the process of a business succession plan. In this post, we will review how to create an exit strategy and minimize conflict when it comes time to begin to transfer the business.

PART 2 – SETTING IN PLACE AN EXIT STRATEGY WHEN THE TIME COMES AND MINIMIZING THE POTENTIAL FOR CONFLICT

Whether it’s in personal relationships or business,…
Continue Reading Transferring a Business: Exit Strategy and Minimizing Conflict

ESG Environmental Social Governance sustainable development and investment evaluation. Green ethical business preserving resources, reducing CO2, caring for employees. Consultant in management.
ESG Environmental Social Governance sustainable development and investment evaluation. Green ethical business preserving resources, reducing CO2, caring for employees. Consultant in management.

Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) initiatives gain in popularity every day and can be driven by boards of directors, investors, shareholders, employees and communities. Couple ESG initiatives with the increasing trend of environmental sustainability generally, and now we see that many companies desire to be viewed as leaders in environmental compliance among their peers. With these two popular trends in mind, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) offers a voluntary program for Wisconsin companies seeking to improve business…
Continue Reading Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources’ “Green Tier” Environmental Program

https-images-squarespace-cdn-com-content-v1-605d7c1bb11ec0469bd9b7ce-1643821187127-7xwsl6s0g24airl3mhoj-gettyimages-1158756364-jpgformat1000w

This is Part 4 of a four-part series. Click here for Part 1, here for Part 2, or here for Part 3. To get future updates delivered to your inbox, please subscribe to my newsletter at the end of this post. Thank you.
 16. Don’t Anchor in Your Closing Argument.
 

 A common belief among defense counsel is you undercut the strength of your no-liability argument if you suggest any dollar amount as a fair measure…
Continue Reading 20 Great Ways to Lose a Trial – Part 4

https-images-squarespace-cdn-com-content-v1-605d7c1bb11ec0469bd9b7ce-96a31da6-5083-4c8e-b2d4-8de6139a568d-unsplash-image-nom4f0xx2bu-jpgformat1000w

Studying how the human brain works has helped scientists learn more about decision-making. Here are some findings and related tips that are especially relevant for lawyers.This article was first published in the Wisconsin Lawyer on January 7th, 2022.Most of us learned the classic, reason-or-emotion concept of decision-making. As described long ago by Plato, human thinking is understood as akin to a chariot driver trying to control two horses, one guided by rational impulse and the other driven…
Continue Reading Use Brain Science to Make Better Decisions

https-images-squarespace-cdn-com-content-v1-605d7c1bb11ec0469bd9b7ce-1641412351919-asgragcb5dyec3qh9kni-gettyimages-166161352-jpgformat1000w

This piece was first published in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.The Waukesha Christmas Parade murders remind us of the continuous judgments made by district attorneys, court commissioners, and judges as they decide whether and on what terms to release those accused of crimes. As a follow-on to Craig Johnson’s important commentary (“Darrell Brooks Jr. case was a tragic mistake but the county’s risk assessment worked,” Dec. 5), it is worth taking account of the insights from decision-making science as…
Continue Reading Waukesha Parade attack highlights a need to improve bail decisions. Do it in a thoughtful, bipartisan way that relies on science.