Well, if you purchased office supplies from Staples, then you should have no worries.  Staples tracks your purchases with your Reward Card; they keep the information for 5 years.   So, if you can’t find your receipts, then call Staples for  your total purchases by year.

This is a great backup for an IRS tax audit. I am representing a client in a tax audit, and we are able to use Staples to support his office supplies deduction.

Good job, Staples.

Celebrities are particularly prone to making some of the mistakes that put businesses into bankruptcy. They are also often the ones hiring the attorneys to help protect their interests in court. After all, when a business goes under it is a messy process and often leads to lawsuits. Having the attorney is a good way to try to keep things protected.

One example of a celebrity who should have avoided getting into business in the first place is Heidi Montag. She gained fame for being part of an MTV series known as “The Hills”. Her attractive looks were a particular selling point for the actress, and it seems that this convinced her that she would be successful in other ventures as well.

When Heidi decided that she was going to release her own clothing line, she finally got the dose of reality about her real appeal to the public.

As an entertainment article on Xfinity.Comcast.Net puts it:

Heidi Montag’s “Heidiwood” clothing line for Anchor Blue lasted less than a year, which in some people’s opinions was a year too long. The flimsy, paper-thin clothes weren’t a hit with shoppers, even the risqué set the line was targeting. The $10 to $60 clothes were indeed inexpensive, but reviewers deemed the poorly-made clothing line unwearable.

Putting out a poor product no matter how famous you are is a sure way to throw money down the drain. Heidi learned the hard way, but you should take from her experience that you cannot try to cheat customers by providing them with cheap products and hope that they will still sell.

To learn more about mistakes that you should avoid, contact us today.

Social media is a fact of life in today’s world. We are constantly warned about the importance of protecting our privacy while enjoying the benefits of living in an age of technology. Stories about how the words you post on Facebook or My Space can potentially cause someone harm or bring them angst are reported almost daily; but can it cost you money or even lead to bankruptcy?

The answer is apparently, yes it can. When R&B singer Ryan Leslie was traveling in Germany in 2010, he lost his laptop computer. It contained some of his music that had not yet been released so the artist was anxious to retrieve the item. It might have been better to allow the computer to remain missing in action, or to at least refrain from bringing social media sites into the situation.

Leslie posted a video to YouTube offering a $20,000 reward for the return of the laptop. He later increased the reward to $1 million dollars in a Twitter post. When Armin Augstein found the computer and returned it to Leslie, the singer refused to pay out the reward. The auto repair shop owner then decided to sue Leslie for the money.

The artist tried several reasons for not paying out the reward, but the judge wasn’t buying his song and dance routine. Although the jury initially questioned the judge about awarding less than $1 million, they eventually decided to grant Augstein the full amount.

While Ryan Leslie may not be heading to bankruptcy court over his impromptu offer on Twitter, the damages and his attorney costs are substantial. Adding to Leslie’s financial woes, Augstein recently filed a new lawsuit hoping to force the singer into paying interest on the $1,000,000 settlement.

Famous artists may be able to afford a slip of the keyboard, but most small business owners operate on a tighter budget. When your fingers itch to make a post or type a Twitter tweet, think twice before pressing send; it might just save you and your business a lot of money. For more information on our law practice and how to keep your business out of trouble, please contact us.

More than a few celebrities have started small business ventures only to see them into bankruptcy in short order, many in a year or less. This is despite the star power that the celebrities have to help with publicity in the beginning.

Regardless, there are many lessons that one can learn from the mistakes that celebrities have made when it comes to running their own small business.

The first thing to note is that your business needs to be properly managed. If you are doing the managing yourself, then this means that you need to put the pressure on yourself to keep things running the way they are supposed to. If this work has been outsourced to someone else, then it is time to start coming down on them to make sure they are doing everything they are supposed to.

Britney Spears had to end up giving up on her restaurant Nyla in 2002 because she did not keep tabs on it enough to make sure her management was taking care of the place in the way that it was supposed to according to a Huffington Post article. The service was bad, the food not appealing, and there were health code violations. These are three things sure to keep customers away and make a business such as this fall into disarray.  Spears learned about business bankruptcy because her business failed.

If you want to avoid mistakes like this and others that cause businesses to fail, contact us today about all of the things that you can do to help protect your business against some of the most common mistakes that are made in business.

My employer wrote me a check  and I cashed it. He put a stop payment on it and is now saying I stole it. What should I do?

My answer:

A few things can happen. First, the employer must honor the check even though he placed a stop-payment notice with his bank. So, if you cashed it a check cashing place, for example, the check cashing place may sue the employer to honor the check. If this happens, the employer will add you as a co-defendant to the lawsuit, claiming that you are jointly responsible for payment of the check or the employer could sue you as a third-party defendant for the funds. Second, the employer could file a complaint with the local or federal police departments. The state or federal prosecutor will decide whether the police have enough evidence to issue an arrest warrant. If they issue an arrest warrant, you will be prosecuted for fraud and theft by deception. Hopefully, you have your timesheets, which will show that you are atleast entitled to payment.  If you are entitled to wage, then you can file a complaint with the Department of Labor, Hour and Wage Division.  You can file the complaint online with the Department.

My best advice is to hire an attorney, and try to mediate the dispute before any of this happens. Good luck.

• Visit the Workforce Recruitment Site

Private sector employers can access the WRP through ODEP’s national Employer Assistance and Resource Network by making a toll-free call to 855-275-3276 or visiting http://www.AskEARN.org.

Woody Guthrie once wrote, “Some will rob you with a sixgun, and some with a fountain pen.”[4] But did a Missouri lawyer murder her father with a legal document?

One night in October 2010, police responded to a 911 call and found businessman William Van Note and his companion, Sharon Dickson, both shot in the head. Dickson was dead, but Van Note gravely wounded. Van Note lingered on life support, but days later his daughter Liz Van Note, a lawyer in the Kansas City suburb of Lee’s Summit, appeared in the hospital with a document labeled “Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care,” giving her authority to make medical decisions on his behalf and stating he did not want to be kept alive by life support. The document was witnessed by one of Liz Van Note’s high school friends and her husband. After some delay, the doctors removed the apparatus keeping William Van Note alive, and he died.

Police and document experts subsequently determined that William Van Note did not sign the Durable Power of Attorney presented by Liz Van Note. An indictment alleges that Liz Van Note forged William Van Note’s signature to the document, committing forgery and, since the forgery was used to cause the death of William Van Note, also committing first degree murder. The witnesses, Desre and Stacey Dore, are also charged with forgery and murder.

Van Note has pleaded not guilty to the charges. Her attorney admits that the signature on the durable power was not William Van Note’s, but says the deceased did sign such a document, and his client created the forged document when she was unable to find the signed copy.

On November 15, a judge removed Liz Van Note as executor of her father’s estate on petition of Dickson’s son. William Van Note’s will made Dickson, whom he planned to marry, the personal representative and primary heir, but only if she outlived him.

Hearing and trial in the case are set for December. Read the rest of the newsletter here.

Given this shift, now’s the time to take control of your financial health. Learn how to strengthen your financial position, whether you are forging new relationships or dissolving existing ones, planning for retirement, or facing other life changes.

Moderated by ElizabethE. Willis, CSNA,Financial Advisor, PIA Program Portfolio Advisor, The Dunn/Willis Group. Merrill Lynch, the panel features:

·      Liz Barker, Vice President, Financial Consultant, RBC Wealth Management

·      Susan V. Boehm, Financial Consultant, AXA Advisors, LLC/Karr Barth Associates

·      Kelley S. Reilly, Senior Trust & Fiduciary Specialist, Vice President, Wells Fargo Private Bank

·      Jennifer Romberger, CPA, Long Financial Group, Inc.

·      Doris Theune, Ph.D., Executive Coach, Coaching Affiliates

The event is hosted and sponsored by The University of Phoenix, and presented by Professional Women’sRoundtable’s(PWR). A non-profit founded in 2002, PWR’s mission is to provide networking, leadership, educational and personal growth opportunities to a diverse group of emerging women business leaders in the Greater Philadelphia region

Note: Space is limited, so register early at http://pwroundtable.com/Default.aspx?pageId=1283326 Registration deadline is Oct. 22. A light breakfast will be served.

Lovett Memorial Library

6945 Germantown Ave.

Thursday, October 25, 2012

10:15am-12:15 pm.

Hosted by BAM – Business Association of Mount Airy