Florida Business Purchase Attorneys

If you are interested in buying a business, you need to be sure that you don’t forget any of the essential steps that need to be undertaken to complete the purchase. It is not as simple to buy a business as people think, and it can be easy to run into major difficulties related to this process without legal guidance. Having a skilled lawyer help you to buy a business can eliminate the likelihood that you will run into tax issues or problems with the purchase along the way.

The team at Lopez Law Group can help you to buy a business in Florida without any hassles or mistakes. You can count on the team to advise you about the best way to go about the purchase process, and they can make sure that all legal considerations are thought of and attended to as the sale progresses. Having a skilled legal mentor involved in the purchase of a business is essential in most cases, and Lopez Law can take care of this need for you with ease.

Reasons to Buy an Existing Business

There are many reasons that you might want to buy any existing business. The company is already established, and it will have employees and business processes that are already turning a profit. You will be able to take over a company that has an identity, and that has been developed into an established entity with branding and product lines already in place. These processes can take years, and you will be able to skip right over these steps.

This can save you a lot of time when you want to get into a particular market, or you might want to add a business to your portfolio that complements another company that you own. You will be avoiding the perils that come with funding and developing a business from the ground up and getting to start out with your business on solid ground.

Things That a Skilled Lawyer Can Help You With

If you are buying a business that is already established, you will want to be certain that you have a good plan for the operations of the business once you take control. If you need to establish an LLC or you have a business partner, having legal support for your purchase can make a big difference in the outcome of the sale. You will also want to be sure that you are aware of the financial picture involved in the business acquisition.

There are many things that need to be considered beyond the purchase price for the business, and a skilled purchase and acquisition lawyer can help you look at all of the details with regard to taxes, operating costs, and more. Being able to assess the entire risk picture associated with a business purchase is important. Too many people go it alone and end up with all kinds of surprise expenses and costs that they did not think of. This can lead to the loss of the business shortly after purchase or years of debts that could have been avoided.

There is also a lot of benefit to working with a business purchase lawyer if you have never worked in or managed a business in the field that the company is associated with. If you do not know anything about the industry that you will be buying into, a skilled legal professional can help you to know enough about the company and the industry to evaluate the decision to buy in. This can help you to avoid pitfalls that you might not know about since you have never been associated with the industry in question. It can also help you to decide if this kind of company is even a good fit for your experience and skill set.

Having solid legal advice about the nature of the business and the difficulties and challenges related to the industry itself can be invaluable. There is more to think about when buying a business than the cost of the purchase alone, and a lawyer can help you to make wise choices related to this kind of decision.

Some Things That a Lawyer Will Ask to See During an Acquisition in Florida

Your lawyer will ask to look into the following details when you ask for support with the decision to buy an established business:

·         Certified Financial Records

The financial history of the business is very relevant to your decision to buy it, and your lawyer will order these documents and look at the profits and costs associated with the business. Your lawyer can also help to predict future profitability and look at things like the company’s debt structure and other burdens that will add to operating costs.

·         Employee Information

The benefit structure for your employees can add a lot of cost to your purchase over the long run. You will also want to know what the turnover at the business is and how many employees you will need to hire to manage the company effectively each year. Employee management costs more money than just salaries and benefits, and your lawyer can help you to look at the cost of onboarding and other employee needs along with your costs to keep a full staff pair each year.

In addition, there might be adjustments that are needed to resolve employment issues that your lawyer can advise you about. Some businesses only operate at a profit because they are working their employees too hard. If you are faced with the need to fully staff a business, it might not actually be profitable to operate it.

·         Tax Information

Your lawyer will look at the tax situation related to the business and verify details about what taxes will cost and what kinds of problems might have taken place in the past when taxes were managed by the current owner. You do not want to take on a business that is operating under an unpaid tax burden or that has taxes that are so complex to file that you might not be prepared to take care of this need. The tax structure of any business can make the process of operating it more or less profitable, and you might want to avoid a business with a really complicated tax reality.

·         Past Legal Action

If the business has been involved in past legal trouble, your lawyer can look into the details of the cases or cases and make sure that the problems that led to the lawsuit are no longer present. These legal actions might have been due to operational mistakes or errors that could have been avoided, and you will need to be sure that you know how to stay away from these pitfalls. You will also want to be sure that you are not trying to buy a business that is encumbered with an active lawsuit that has not been disclosed to you.

·         Leases and Loans

The costs associated with leasing a property or equipment or any loans that the business is currently paying on that need to be carefully examined. You will inherit these obligations and burdens when you take over the business, and you should know for sure what they are and what they cost. Many people who do not seek legal support when they are buying a business are very unhappy to find out that they are trapped into a lease they do not want or that they are going to have to finish paying off a loan that they did not know that the business had undertaken.

This is perhaps one of the most valuable services that your lawyer can offer to you during the purchase process, and you will want to take full advantage of your lawyer’s skill in this area when contemplating looking at a business that is for sale.

Vendor Contacts and Relationships

There are many reasons that you need to know about the vendor relationships and contacts that are associated with the business that you are thinking about buying. If the vendor is overcharging or is not reliable, you will need to consider replacing this part of your supply chain or your sales efforts. You also need to be sure that the vendors will want to continue working with the business once it changes hands. This can be a difficult sticking point for many established vendor contracts, and sometimes vendors will actually pay a large sum of money to break a contract once you have purchased a company.

This can lead to all kinds of unfortunate surprises that you will want to avoid. Having a skilled lawyer looking into the purchase process can ensure you don’t buy a business that has no room to grow or one that could lead to a huge loss of profits over time. These non-compete agreements can vary in nature and can be in place for a duration of time so that you do not become a victim of this common issue that can plague a business that has recently changed hands.

·         Non-Compete Agreements

You should be sure that you are aware of any non-compete agreements that might be in place related to the business that you want to buy. You will also need to know if you will be asked not to compete with the current business owner in specific areas for a set period of time. After all, if you want to grow your business rapidly, having a non-compete with the current owner of the business after the sale will not allow you much room to do so, which might make buying the business a bad idea for your plans.

Business Purchase Process

 The actual process of the purchase of a business involves many steps. This is not a simple process, and even buying a small business can bring with it heaps of paperwork that must be done. There are many documents that are hard to draft on your own, and you will want to be sure that you are not missing any of these essentials when you are ready to actually put your money down and buy the company in question.

Your lawyer can help you to apply for your Employment Identification Number for tax purposes as well, and they can make sure that you have the right type of business entity registered with the State of Florida. You will probably also want help creating a non-disclosure agreement, an engagement letter, a purchase agreement, and affidavits associated with the sale and resolutions that need to be created. You might also need assistance with the creation of promissory notes, security agreements, terms letters, and a letter of intent.

The total document count for Florida business purchases is twenty-one documents, and most of them are not available online to just be printed out and filled in. Your lawyer can help you to save a lot of time during the purchase process and ensure that no steps are missed along the way. The team at Lopez Law Group has years of experience in this process and can help guide your business purchase or acquisition carefully from start to finish.

Having a skilled lawyer prepare all of the documents associated with the purchase can help save you time and worry and make sure that nothing is overlooked during the sales process. Being able to come to a meeting and just sign documents and leave once the sale has been confirmed can be really ideal and offer a lot of peace of mind related to your business purchase process.

Business Purchase Negotiations

Often, the process of buying a business includes negotiations that must be done. This can be very hard to do on your own, but having a skilled legal team on your side during the negotiation process can deliver big results. You should not just accept the first price that is quoted to you and blindly take it. There are many reasons that this is not a good idea, the most important of which is that you might not even know how much money can be made off the company without doing research.

Once your lawyer has looked into the profits and the costs associated with the business and made a projection about the future benefits that you can enjoy from owning and operating it, the sales price can be carefully assessed. Business owners are always looking to make a profit when they sell their businesses, but the reality is that some businesses are not profitable enough to justify a large sales tag. Negotiations that are done correctly can ensure that you get the right sales price for the business to make sure that you can afford to operate it and make a profit from it.

Without careful negotiations, you might overpay for the company in question, or you might not realize that you are paying for profits that cannot actually be realized by the business in the near future. The reports that are offered to you regarding the business and its viability might be padded to look better than they really are. Having your own lawyer take care of business analysis and then negotiate for a better price is a key aspect of making smart business purchases.

The team at Lopez Law Group knows how to negotiate effectively during the process of buying a business. They can make sure that you do not overpay for the company in question and that you are not asked to pay more than the company will be worth due to skewed projections. This is one of the most valuable services that your lawyer can offer you during a business purchase, and Lopez Law can be trusted to undertake this important task with ease.

The Team at Lopez Law Group Can Help You Buy a Business in Florida

If you are looking into buying a Florida business and you are not sure how to go about the process, you need to reach out to the team at Lopez Law. The process of buying a business is complicated, and it can lead to all kinds of pitfalls that you will want to avoid. Letting a skilled legal team take care of the evaluations and the documentation creation that needs to be completed prior to the sale can make all the difference when it comes to a business purchase.

From opportunities to scale the business to questions about taxation, and operating costs, to looking into current leases and loans that might impact your profits, Lopez Law Group is here for you. Buying a Florida business can be a big decision, but we can help you to make a smart choice that will deliver you profits and benefits rather than expenses and frustration. The process of buying a business in Florida can be lengthy and confusing without legal support, which is why having a skilled lawyer involved in negotiations can deliver such big results for your efforts.

Let the team at Lopez Law Group help you to buy a business today! Reach out to us for a consultation and allow us to undertake the complex task of evaluating the business in question and helping you to negotiate and finalize the sale!