Legal Updates

Equal pay is the law in Colorado.  Governor Polis signed a bill that made Colorado the tenth state in the country to pass an equal pay law. Colorado’s law goes into effect on January 1, 2021 and is more demanding than federal law.

Selling your business to a few of your employees is one of the options that allow you the business owner to exit your business.  Depending on how many employees you want to sell your business to, you must ask yourself is every one of those few employees a key employee?  Do those employees get along with either other?

When planning to give stock to an employee, remember that an employee that owns stock has the right to vote those shares. He/she can request and receive financial information about the company and can question your business decisions.

A team of advisors is needed to help you the business owner make the right decisions, grow your business, and achieve the goals you have.  By having a team of advisors in your corner, allows you to speak to any of your advisors about problems that you may have or that may arise to ensure you are heading in the right direction to fulfill your unique goal(s). 

Many closely held businesses are considering adding additional owners.  Perhaps the owner has heard about how key employees can help drive the value of the business up and want to use ownership to provide more of an incentive to those key employees.

Here is our very own Halifax (guide dog puppy in training with Barb) greeting a mini-horse. Why?

For the most part, many businesses are run out of one company, one entity, and that is acceptable.  Even though that method is an acceptable way to organize your business, it is also essential for you to consider the other side, which is owning more than one entity to limit your liability.  Why would you want to own more than one company, though?

Transitioning from a privately held company to a publicly held company is generally not an exit strategy regarding the short term.  Typically, this move of converting your privately held entity to a publicly traded company is used as a strategy to raise capital; it is a financial tool used to grow your company and take it to the next level.

Every seller should be paranoid about keeping a potential sale confidential.  Your employees, customers, competitors, and vendors should only learn about the sale AFTER the closing and in a manner that you, the seller, are in complete control.

As a business owner who is selling, you have absolutely no cause to feel guilty or responsible for your employee’s after you have sold your company.  Remember for years you have provided them with jobs, careers, opportunities, salaries, and benefits. 

There are many advantages when selling your business to an independent third party and a lot of these advantages mirror the disadvantages that arise when selling to a family member or key employee. 

Does your family want the business? Does your family member(s) know how to run the business, have they developed the right skills? These are fundamental questions when regarding the transfer of your business to a family member.