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Small business owners make legal decisions constantly.
They just don’t always look like legal decisions at the time.
Most small businesses don’t need a full-time attorney sitting down the hall.
But there are moments when having an attorney who already understands your business can make an enormous difference.
Kinney Buzek Law Firm provides practical business and commercial legal counsel to Colorado small businesses that need experienced legal guidance without maintaining in-house general counsel.
Many small business owners call an attorney for the first time when there’s already a problem.
A contract has been signed.
A customer hasn’t paid.
A business partner wants out.
A lease provision suddenly matters.
Or an agreement that seemed straightforward six months ago now means something very different.
At that point, the question becomes:
“What can we do?”
We’d rather help you ask:
“What should we do?”
Kinney Buzek’s approach to small business law is built around helping owners understand legal implications before important decisions are made, while being available when unexpected issues arise.
The goal isn’t to involve a lawyer in every decision.
It’s to know which decisions deserve legal attention before you make them.
Your Business Has Legal Questions. You Should Have Someone to Call.
Large companies have general counsel.
Their attorney learns the business, understands its operations, recognizes recurring risks and helps leadership evaluate important decisions.
Small businesses often operate differently.
The owner becomes CEO, salesperson, HR department, collections department, contract reviewer and sometimes amateur lawyer.
That’s a lot to carry.
Outside general counsel gives a small business access to ongoing legal guidance without the expense of hiring a full-time in-house attorney.
Instead of introducing your company to a new lawyer every time something happens, you can develop a relationship with counsel who already understands:
The more your attorney understands the business, the more useful the legal advice can become.
"It's Just a Standard Contract" Can Become an Expensive Sentence.
Contracts are part of running a business.
Customer agreements. Vendor contracts. Independent contractor agreements. Purchase agreements. Service agreements. Confidentiality agreements. Commercial leases.
And frequently, the document arrives with an expectation that you’ll simply sign it.
A business attorney can help you understand:
What are you actually promising?
What is the other party required to do?
What happens if something goes wrong?
Who carries the financial risk?
How can the agreement be terminated?
What happens if someone doesn’t pay?
What law controls the agreement?
And what happens if there’s a dispute?
The goal of contract review isn’t to turn every agreement into a negotiation.
It’s to make sure you understand the deal you’re making before you make it.
Kinney Buzek can assist small businesses with contract review, drafting and negotiation when appropriate.
A Handshake Is Simple. Until Everyone Remembers It Differently.
Good relationships are important in business.
Clear agreements help protect them.
Customer and vendor agreements can establish expectations regarding scope, pricing, payment, responsibilities, deadlines, warranties, termination and other important terms before there’s a disagreement about what everyone intended.
Kinney Buzek helps business owners create and evaluate agreements designed to make responsibilities clearer from the beginning.
Because the best contract isn’t necessarily the longest one.
It’s the one everyone understands before the work begins.
The Best Time to Decide What Happens Between Owners Is While Everyone Still Gets Along.
Starting a business with another person often begins with optimism.
You’re building something together.
Nobody wants to begin the relationship by imagining what might go wrong.
But businesses change.
Owners get married or divorced.
Someone wants to retire.
Someone stops contributing.
One partner wants to sell.
Another wants to stay.
An owner becomes disabled or dies.
A strong operating or ownership agreement can address important questions before emotions and money are involved.
Kinney Buzek can help business owners evaluate issues involving ownership, management responsibilities, decision-making, transfers of ownership and what happens when an owner’s relationship with the company changes.
And because Kinney Buzek also works in estate planning, we can consider another question that’s frequently overlooked:
What happens to your business interest when something happens to you?
The Rent Is Only One Part of the Deal.
A commercial lease can create significant financial and legal obligations for a business — often for years after the agreement is signed.
And commercial leases are not the same as residential leases.
Business owners should not assume they have the same protections they may be familiar with as residential tenants. In a commercial transaction, the parties generally have greater freedom to negotiate the terms of the agreement, and business owners are expected to understand the obligations they are accepting and protect their own interests before signing.
That makes the details of the lease especially important.
Beyond monthly rent, a commercial lease may determine who pays operating expenses, taxes, insurance, maintenance and repairs; who is responsible for improvements to the property; whether rent can increase; what happens if the business needs to relocate or close; whether the lease can be assigned; and what constitutes a default.
A personal guarantee can raise the stakes even further by potentially making the business owner personally responsible for obligations under the lease.
Once the lease is signed, those terms can be difficult — and expensive — to change.
Having legal counsel involved before you sign gives you an opportunity to understand the actual cost of the agreement, identify provisions that could create unnecessary risk, and negotiate terms while you still have leverage.
Kinney Buzek helps Colorado business owners review and negotiate commercial leases before they commit, so they understand not only what they will pay today, but what they are agreeing to for the years ahead.
A Good Opportunity Still Deserves Careful Questions.
Buying or selling a business can involve far more than agreeing on a price.
What exactly is being purchased?
Assets?
Ownership interests?
Customer contracts?
Equipment?
Intellectual property?
Liabilities?
What representations is the seller making?
What obligations survive closing?
What happens if something discovered later isn’t what the buyer expected?
A business attorney can help identify the legal issues surrounding a proposed transaction, review and prepare appropriate agreements and coordinate with accountants, financial advisors and other professionals involved in the deal.
The business decision belongs to you. Our job is to help you understand the legal implications of making it.
Revenue Isn't Revenue Until You Collect It.
Unpaid invoices create an uncomfortable problem for small businesses.
You want to preserve customer relationships.
You don’t want to spend more pursuing the debt than the debt is worth.
But you also can’t operate a company by providing work you never get paid for.
Kinney Buzek can help business owners evaluate payment and collection issues, contractual rights and appropriate next steps when a customer or another business fails to meet its obligations.
Sometimes the most useful legal work happens before the collection problem exists.
Clear payment terms, deposit requirements, late-payment provisions and well-drafted customer agreements can help establish expectations before money becomes an issue.
Business partnerships are relationships.
And relationships can change.
Owners may disagree about money, responsibilities, strategy, distributions, growth, bringing in another owner or whether the company should continue in its current form.
Not every disagreement needs to become litigation.
Sometimes the first step is simply understanding:
What does the agreement say?
What rights does each owner have?
What options exist?
And is there a path forward everyone can live with?
Kinney Buzek can help business owners evaluate legal issues surrounding ownership disagreements and determine appropriate next steps.
When a matter requires specialized litigation or another area outside our practice, we can help identify when additional counsel may be appropriate.
Neither Does Your Business.
A legal decision can create financial consequences.
A tax decision can create legal consequences.
An insurance issue can affect a contract.
A business transaction can affect an estate plan.
That’s why business owners often need several professional perspectives around an important decision.
Kinney Buzek can work alongside your:
The attorney doesn’t need to do everyone else’s job.
But the advice should work together.
Your Business May Be One of the Most Valuable Things You Own.
You may think of your business and your personal estate as two completely separate worlds.
Legally, they can intersect very quickly.
What happens to your ownership interest if you die?
Who can make business decisions if you’re incapacitated?
Does your operating agreement determine what happens to your interest?
Does your estate plan say something different?
Would your family inherit the company?
Would your partners have an obligation or right to purchase your interest?
Where would the money come from?
These questions become especially important as a company grows.
Kinney Buzek’s estate-planning and business-law practices allow us to look at both sides of the equation:
Protecting the business you’re building today and planning for what happens to it tomorrow.
Legal counsel is most valuable before a business decision becomes a business problem.
You don’t need to call your attorney about every day-to-day decision. But when you’re signing an agreement, taking on a new obligation, changing ownership, hiring or terminating key people, entering a partnership, or making a decision that could expose the business to financial or legal risk, getting counsel beforehand matters.
A conversation at the beginning can identify risks you may not see, clarify what you’re agreeing to, and help structure the decision to protect both you and the business.
Once an agreement is signed, money has changed hands, or a dispute has started, your options may be more limited — and resolving the issue can become significantly more expensive.
Consider calling before you:
That last one matters.
You don’t need to diagnose the legal issue before calling an attorney.
Sometimes the question is simply:
“Should I be concerned about this?”
Running a small business already requires you to wear enough hats.
Legal counsel shouldn’t be another job you have to learn.
You don’t need a lawyer sitting in every meeting.
You don’t need every business decision turned into a legal project.
And you don’t need to wait until there’s a crisis.
You need someone you can call when the decision matters.
Kinney Buzek Law Firm provides practical business and commercial legal counsel for Colorado small businesses that need an attorney who can understand their business, answer questions and help them make informed decisions as they grow.
The best time for your attorney to learn your business isn’t after something has gone wrong.
We’ll help you understand what comes next.
A small business attorney helps business owners understand and manage legal issues involving contracts, ownership, transactions, commercial relationships and other decisions that arise while operating a company. The attorney may also provide ongoing legal counsel so the business owner has an established resource when new questions arise.
Outside general counsel provides ongoing legal support to a business without serving as a full-time employee of the company. For a small business, this can provide access to an attorney familiar with the company’s operations, contracts and goals without maintaining an in-house legal department.
Consider legal review when a contract creates significant financial obligations, lasts for an extended period, includes unfamiliar terms, requires a personal guarantee, transfers important rights, restricts future activity or would create meaningful consequences if the relationship goes wrong.
The best time to understand a contract is before signing it.
An operating agreement can establish important rules regarding ownership, management, voting, distributions, transfers and what happens when an owner’s relationship with the business changes. Whether a particular agreement is appropriate depends on the company’s structure and circumstances.
A business attorney can review commercial lease terms and help the business owner understand obligations involving rent, operating expenses, maintenance, insurance, personal guarantees, renewals, assignment, default and other provisions before the lease is signed.
Yes. Business legal decisions frequently intersect with accounting, tax, financial and insurance considerations. Coordinating professional advisors can be particularly useful for significant transactions and long-term planning.
Accountants and attorneys perform different roles. An accountant may advise on financial reporting and tax matters, while an attorney advises on legal rights, obligations, contracts and risk. Important business decisions can benefit from both perspectives.
The answer depends on the company’s structure, ownership agreements and your estate plan. An operating agreement or buy-sell provision may affect what happens to an ownership interest, while estate-planning documents may address how the interest or its value should ultimately pass.
Business owners should coordinate these documents before a crisis occurs.