what’s In A Name – Just Your Business Survival!
What’s so important about how I sign my name?”
I get asked that question all of the time from my business consulting clients.
I tell them that a better question to ask me is this:
“Who cares about how I sign my name?”
The answer is a simple one.
NOBODY.
FINE PRINT: Except… your customers and clients, your creditors, your bank, your mortgage company, your landlord, the I.R.S… oh yes… and anyone else that wants to SUE YOU (and don’t forget ALL their lawyers!).
As in many areas of the law, the exception to the rule swallows up the rule!
What do I mean by this?
Well, let’s start with some basics. For instance, if you’ve already formed a corporation or limited liability company (LLC), you may think that you’re already protected from personal liability in the event of a lawsuit against your business.
In general, the rule is that a corporation or LLC, if formed correctly, and if all of the formalities required under the law of the State where the entity was formed are followed, does protect you from personal liability for business debts and lawsuits.
FINE PRINT: Except… when you choose to do business as an individual, and not as the corporation or LLC that you initially formed.
You see, whenever you sign documents like contracts, purchase orders, contractual agreements, leases, loans, mortgages, promissory notes, and most other legal documents involving your business, you need to make sure that you sign your name only in your business capacity.
You MUST avoid signing your name in your individual capacity.
And how do you do that? It’s pretty simple. You see, the format that you use to sign your name is the controlling factor.
In many cases, you as the business owner, sign your name without knowing how to properly sign your name to business documents. In fact, most business owners of corporations and LLC’s still sign legally binding agreements in their individual capacity…and not as the business.
SIGN AS AN AGENT OF YOUR BUSINESS
If you have formed a corporation or an LLC, you must remember to sign all contracts, agreements, invoices, etc… as an agent of the business.
For example… Many business owners haphazardly, or perhaps inadvertently, sign legal documents like the format shown in
EXAMPLE 1 below:
EXAMPLE 1
(signature)
————————
John Doe
“But what is the consequence of signing my name like in EXAMPLE 1 above to invoices, agreements, or documents?”
EXAMPLE 1 and the above signature format legally establishes that YOU have signed the contract, invoice, loan, or agreement as an individual.
And not as an agent on behalf of your business.
If you sign your name to agreements in the form depicted in EXAMPLE 1 above, YOU could very well be liable personally to meet all of the terms of the agreement.
And you likely don’t want to do this!
Why Simply out, because you’re therefore subjecting all of your business assets and personal assets as well to the risk of a lawsuit.
If you sign agreements as depicted in EXAMPLE 1 above, YOU will very likely be named personally, as well as your business, in any lawsuit filed against the business.
Remember then:
Signing your name like in EXAMPLE 1 above DOES NOT establish that you have signed the agreement as an agent on behalf of your business.
“Okay. So how should I sign my name to my invoices, contracts, leases, loans, or any other business agreements?
What simple step can I take to protect my business, and my personal assets as well?
SIGN DOCUMENTS ONLY AS AN AGENT OF YOUR BUSINESS
Make sure that you only sign legal documents, letters, memos, invoices, loans, leases, etc… as an agent of your business.
How must I sign my name to any legal document or agreement to show that I am signing only as an agent of my business?
Follow EXAMPLE 2 below:
EXAMPLE 2
ABC CORPORATION, INC.
(signature)
———————————–
BY: John Doe
President (Company Title)
If you sign your name on the dotted line following the exact format depicted in Example 2 above, you legally establish that you are only signing as an agent on behalf of the business…and not in your individual capacity.
But you MUST follow the Example 2 precisely.
CAVEAT: Another very important point on this topic.
AVOID SIGNING documents that state “PERSONAL GUARANTY” on them.
A Personal Guaranty is usually a separate legal document attached to the main agreement. You generally see a Personal Guaranty in a loan, mortgage, or lease. However, sometimes a Personal Guaranty can be established just by the way you sign the legal document, invoice, lease, or agreement.
How?
Simple. If the agreement merely has a signature line that has your individual name on it without any reference to your business name, you are signing the document as a Personal Guaranty. You are therefore personally liable for that agreement if you sign the agreement with such a signature line.
But, what do I do if I am being required to sign a Personal Guaranty, like for a business loan or commercial lease for example?
If a Personal Guaranty is required, you or your lawyer should negotiate a limited period of time (the shortest possible) that the Personal Guaranty will bind you as an individual.
Remember, if you formed a corporation or LLC in the first place, you did it to avoid personal liability and to protect your personal assets. Anyone who does business with your company should, and usually does, know this. So, be careful. Other possibilities can be negotiated too. Just do your best not to sign in your personal capacity by signing a Personal Guaranty.
It’s important to remember to only sign legal documents, invoices, and even letters as an agent of your business. (Follow the format found in EXAMPLE 2 above).
How else can I make sure that I am signing my name properly to all of my business documents?
Call your attorney to review all of your agreements, invoices, leases, and legal documents BEFORE you sign them. Your attorney will offer sound advice that protects YOU, your loved ones, and your business.
Now, let’s review.
What’s in a name?
Well… besides your business…
…it could be all of YOUR personal and family assets!
The best advicve especially in the midst of tough economic times or a Recession, is to have any document you sign first reviewed by your lawyer or business consultant.
Copyright (c) 2008. Miguel Mendez, Jr. All rights reserved.
The Law of Candor, Admit a Negative and the Prospect Will Give You a Positive
It goes against corporate and human nature to admit a problem. For years, the power of positive thinking has been drummed into us and “think positive” has been the subject of endless books and articles.
So it may come as a surprise to you that one of the most effective ways to get into a prospects mind is to be candid and first admit a negative, then twist it into a positive.
Avis is only No 2 in rent cars.
With a name like Smuckers it has to be good.
Whats going on here? Why does a dose of honesty work so well in the marketing process?
First and foremost, candor is very disarming. Every negative statement you make about yourself is instantly accepted as truth. Positive statements, on the other hand, are looked at as dubious at best especially in an advertisement.
You have to prove a positive statement to the prospects satisfaction. No proof is needed for a negative statement.
“With a name like Smuckers it has to be good.” Most companies, especially family companies, would never make fun of their name. Yet the Smucker family did, which is one reason why Smuckers is the No 1 brand of jams and jellies. If your name is bad, you have two choices: change the name or make fun of it.
Avis is only No 2 in rent cars so why go with them? They must try harder. Everybody knew that Avis was second in rent cars.
So why go with the obvious? Marketing is often a search for the obvious. Since you cant change a mind once it is made up, your marketing efforts have to be devoted to using ideas and concepts already installed in the brain. You have to use your marketing programs to “rub it in.” No program did this as brilliantly as the Avis No 2 program.
The explosive growth of communications in our society has made people defensive and cautious about companies trying to sell them anything. Admitting a problem is something that very few companies do.
When a company starts a message by admitting a problem, people tend to, almost instinctively, open their minds. Think about the times that someone came to you with a problem and how quickly you got involved and wanted to help. Now think about people starting a conversation about some wonderful things they are doing. You probably were a lot less interested.
Now with that mind open, you are in a position to drive in the positive, which is our selling idea. Some years ago, Scope entered the mouthwash market with a good tasting mouthwash thus exploiting Listerines truly terrible taste.
What should Listerine do? It certainly could not tell people that Listerines taste was not all that bad. That would raise a red flag that would reinforce a negative perception. Things could get worse. Instead, Listerine brilliantly invoked the law of candor: “The taste you hate twice a day.”
Not only did the company admit the product tasted bad, it admitted that people actually hated it (now thats honesty). This admission setup the selling idea that Listerine “kills a lot of germs.”
The prospect figured that anything that tastes like disinfectant must indeed be a germ killer. A crisis passed with help of a heavy dose of candor.
One final note: The law of candor must be used carefully and with great skill. First, your negative must be widely perceived as a negative. It has to trigger an instant agreement with your prospects mind. If the negative does not register quickly, your prospect will be confused and will wonder, “What is this all about?”
Next you have to shift quickly to the positive. The purpose of candor is not to apologize. The purpose of candor is to setup a benefit that will convince your prospect.
This law only proves the old maxim: Honesty is the best policy.
Marketing is a battle of ideas. If you are to succeed, you must have a unique attribute to focus and describe your value. Without one, you had better have a low price; a very low price.
It takes a while but many Internet Marketing entrepreneurs learn the Law of Candor. They learn to identify their target market, focus on promoting products that will appeal and add value to their target market.
To accomplish this, they use various methods, tools, and follow a traffic formula to build relationships with their leads and customers. They build websites that create trust. They collect name and email addresses using an Optin form on a Landing Page. They use email systems with both auto-responders and broadcast capabilities in order to send messages to their leads and customers. These email messages frequently send information, provide knowledge, and occasionally promote an offering. Many Internet Marketing entrepreneurs learn that leads and customers do not like to be sold to however they will browse and shop. Over an extended period of time, skilled Internet Marketers are able to use hypnotic writing skills, in their marketing campaigns, to get leads and customers to take the action they want. This is how they learn to identify a target market, stay focused, and add value to their target market. They learn to leverage the equity in their list and be successful in the world that includes the Law of Candor.
It looks easy but marketing is not a game for amateurs. Marketing is not a battle of products. It is all about the strategy you use to benefit from the Law of Candor when you admit a negative, the prospect will give you a positive.
You can find out more about Internet Marketing and home-based businesses by reading updates that will be posted at my blog over the next few weeks.
Also, a great book to read is “The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing” by Ries & Trout. It is the source of some of the material provided in this article.
In closing, be sure to meet me at my website, WhoIsMikeFarrell, learn some tips about being No 1 on Google at aspenIbiz My Go-To-Market Partners, and learn how to be savvy with your money like the insiders at aspenIbiz The Conspiracy For Your Money Blog.
Finally, I would like to provide Best Wishes for a Prosperous New Year!
[Top]Legal Details About Az Divorce Documents On The Internet
A county Clerk of Court is the office-in-charge of Divorce Records Arizona. If you want to retrieve a certain divorce file, you can get it at the Clerk of Court that finalized the divorce. You do not have to worry about legality issues because it is legal to retrieve files that are considered as public records. The state of Arizona does not have a main storage for divorce files even though it has an Office of Vital Records. But if you have no idea which county Clerk of Court has the files you need, you can ask for help from the Office of Vital records.
Only divorce files are considered by the court as supporting documents to prove the dissolution of a marriage. Before you tie the knot with your lover, it would not hurt if you check if he or she got involved in a previous marriage or not so you will not have to deal with legal problems one of these days. If you have been married in the past but now want to enter into another marriage, prepare your own divorce file when you apply for a license to marry.
Only the husband, wife, their legal representatives, and any other individual that has the consent of the court can access and view everything that is included on the files. If you are otherwise, you will be given limited access to the files, which includes the names of the husband and the wife and the date and location where the divorce was finalized. Pieces of information that are deemed as personal, like the terms and conditions of the case, are kept private.
To retrieve the records, submit a request at the county Clerk of Court. You have to supply the full name of either the husband or the wife. If you can add more information such as their place of residence, their birthday, or their job description, it will make the search process faster. You may also opt to mail your request if you cannot hand it personally to the Clerk of Court. However, you will have to wait about two to three weeks to get the files. You will be charged a certain amount for retrieving the files and the amount varies from county to county.
You can also retrieve the files from online search tools that venture in supplying divorce files to the public. If you browse the Internet, you will find various search tools that can help you get the files you need. Fortunately, not all of them can be trusted. In order to check if they are a reliable source or not, research about their background first.
There are search tools that will charge you for retrieving divorce files but there are also those that will offer you Free Public Divorce Records. You will be granted limited information but they will suffice in proving if a divorce is final or not. And if you are unaware which county to search, look for a search tool that gives you an option to search all the other states of the country.
[Top]GM Sued Under Lemon Law
While Toyota is definitely taking the brunt of recalls lately, other vehicle manufacturers have troubles of their own: GM is currently being sued over a 2009 Chevrolet. The owner of the Chevrolet claims he experienced repeated problems that caused him to fear for his safety.
This is not the first time GM has been sued for safety issues – in 2009 a wrongful death suit was filed against them for defective seat belts. 2009 also saw a recall of almost 1.5 million mid- and full-size Buick, Chevrolet, Oldsmobile and Pontiac vehicles because of an engine oil leak problem that could pose a fire risk.
This kind of defect in a vehicle is precisely what the lemon law is about. It protects consumers from the harm or loss caused by purchasing a defective vehicle. Who has what rights and what duties in lemon law matters? It seems clear. The consumer has the duty to present the vehicle to the manufacturer or its representative, the dealership, in order that they are able to diagnose the defect and repair it. Along with the duty, the consumer has a right to expect the dealership to repair the vehicle honestly and expeditiously.
What are the rights of the manufacturer? Simply put, they have the right to expect that the consumer will present their defective vehicle at an authorized dealer for repair in a timely manner, and that the consumer properly maintain the vehicle. The manufacturer should have no other expectation. They should not expect a consumer to perfectly describe the defect they are experiencing or any other limiting requirement.
Of the thousands of lemon law clients we have spoken with, it is extremely rare that a manufacturer makes a legitimate offer to buy back or replace a defective vehicle. In each of these cases no hint of awareness of their affirmative duty was present.
Not all manufacturers or dealerships are the same. Some, certainly not enough, really do have the consumers best interests at heart.
If however you find yourself with a defective vehicle and a manufacturer who is not ready to step up and replace or refund as they should, find yourself an experienced lemon law attorney. Do your homework. Look at their record. See what others who have used their services have to say.
Be certain they offer you a free case evaluation without delay. Never be afraid to ask hard questions. Its important and it can determine the outcome of your lemon law case.
About Norman Taylor & Associates
Norman Taylor & Associates has been assisting consumers since 1987. Our goal is to provide individuals who have the misfortune of purchasing a defective vehicle or goods, and who have recourse under the Lemon Law, with the highest quality legal representation. With a twenty-three year history of successful cases, Norman Taylor & Associates has established its reputation as a firm of consumer advocates that gets the job done. We represent California residents of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties.
[Top]Is It Legal Or Illegal To Jailbreak Verizon Iphone
Recently, a lot of uncertainty has been circling around the issue of whether or not it should be legal to jailbreak 3G phones. “Jailbreaking” is now the common slang term for hacking into a Verizon iPhone, allowing users to run applications on the Apple OS that are not licensed or authorized by the Apple corporation. Confusion has now been cleared up by DMCA regulators, who have reached a consensus, which basically states that there is no unfair use attributed to the user who makes modifications to his or her iPhone, thereby making it operable with applications not approved by Apple.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a U.S. Copyright law that makes it criminal to produce or propagate technology used to hedge digital rights management (DRM) which limit access to works that are copyrighted. However, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has requested that the jailbreak Verizon phone be added to a list of specific exemptions that will ultimately not be applied to this act. The EFF contends that the iPhone’s integration protection system is purely a strategic business decision, bent on preventing competition. The EFF also maintains that jailbreaking represents fair use of the firmware linked to the operating system.
This new revelation comes at the expense of Apple, which has profited on a closed business model, introduced in 2007 when the iPhone debuted. While Apple has stated in the past that is not legal to jailbreak, to this date no action, legal or otherwise, has been taken against the untold numbers of iPhone users who have hacked into their phones to use Cyndia, an underground application store.
Apple has currently sold in excess of three billion applications, and emphatically states that its closed model has been the key to the iPhone’s success. Apple executives feel that other cellular phone networks could likewise be victim to devastating cyber attacks by iPhone users worldwide if they are permitted to legally break into their devices.
Proposed exemptions to the DMCA are brought up for review every three years. From Apple’s perspective, the DMCA should protect the encryption (which is copyrighted) and included in the start up of the iPhone OS. However, the Copyright Office came to a different conclusion – that instead, the restrictions that a copyright owner might impose upon an OS are not covered under a law meant to criminalize the violation of those restrictions.
Cydia, the forbidden application marketplace, can currently boast about nine million iPhones having the app installed. This news, naturally, comes as a great relief to the folks at Cydia and other alternative (but not sanctioned) applications written for installation and function on the iPhone (such as Rock Your Phone, which sells an app that enables the iPhone to become Wi-Fi hotspot.) The jailbreak community at large feels that this decision has given it legitimacy.
In response, Apple states that modification of the iPhone OS can lead to the inception of work which is a violation, yet protected by copyright law – and that the applicable license on the OS prohibits any software alterations. In addition (and not surprisingly) Apple has found that the unauthorized modifications are to be blamed for OS instabilities and other technical issues. Henceforth, they have explicitly stated that such alterations will void the iPhone warranty.