What?
It would be helpful to know if your business is considered a “covered” employer under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”).

Why?
If you are “covered”, you are subject to the detailed record-keeping requirements of the FLSA, as well as the child labor provisions, minimum wage and overtime requirements, among other things.

Covered?
What is a “covered” employer under the FLSA? It can mean either of two things: (1) enterprise liability, which means the whole business is covered; or (2) individual coverage, employees are protected by the FLSA if their work regularly involves them in commerce between States (“interstate commerce”). The FLSA covers individual workers who are “engaged in commerce or in the production of goods for commerce.” As a related note, I dare you to find a worker who is “not” engaged in commerce at this point!

To be covered under “enterprise liability” you must have at least two employees and:

(1) have an annual dollar volume of sales or business done of at least $500,000; or
(2) be hospitals, businesses providing medical or nursing care for residents, schools and preschools, and government agencies.

What now?
Most people would be surprised at how many small businesses are covered by the FLSA. If you have questions about whether your business is covered by the FLSA, talk to an attorney who can help figure it out.

Getting Paid

The promise to pay, written on paper, signed and notarized by the person or business that owes the money is worth surprisingly little. How did I come this conclusion? I have worked on helping people get paid based on written agreements and also defend against people who thought they had a right to be paid based on a written document.

The form of the document carries little wait if all you have is a promise that someone will pay you. It may be a written contract, purchase agreement, promissory note or [insert title of a payment document you have seen here], but without something other than the promise, it doesn’t mean nearly as much as you think. Why?

Because people make decisions not to pay or end up in the position where they cannot pay every day. Are these decisions usually legally wrong? Probably. But they are made all the time and people or businesses that are owed either get paid very slowly or never get paid. You can certainly resort to the legal system, but your strength or weakness in the system depends on what you have done to get prepared.

Here are three strategies for maximizing your chances of actually getting paid what you are owed:

1. Get security. The concept is simple – the person promising to pay pledges some asset of value that they own. If the person doesn’t pay, you get to take the asset and sell it to generate money. Mortgage companies do this in every transaction. There is a promissory note, but more importantly there is a mortgage, that gets its teeth into your property. If you don’t pay, the mortgage takes your house and recovers at least part of what it is owed.

2. Know who you are dealing with up front. One of the best ways to get paid for your work is to enter into agreements with people that have money and a history of paying their obligations. It sounds simple, but the lack of money and/or the will to pay surfaces often in the matters on which I work.

3. Get co-signors. Lenders are mind-numbling skillful at requiring other sources of payment through co-signors. If you try to get credit and the lender has doubts, one way to resolve the doubts is for another person to agree to be obligated. If you don’t pay, then the lender has a clear right of legal action against your co-signor. This is a reasonable strategy and it should be applied to any agreement where payment may be in question. If you are making an agreement with a company with no track record or a spotty one, consider asking someone in addition to the company to agree to be obligated for the payment.

None of these tips are fool-proof, but you can greatly increase your chances of getting paid if you use one or more of them. For more tips like this, sent straight to your email inbox (only a couple of times a month), sign up for my email list:

If you are very fortunate, you may never have to terminate an employee. For most businesses though, things happen that require termination of employment. If you find yourself need to terminate an employee, consider the six guidelines listed before you terminate:

1. Severance. If you are going to pay severance and the employee is not already entitled to receive severance, you need to require the employee to sign a release in exchange for the severance. The release is the employee’s acknowledgment that he is giving up all claims against the company in exchange for a severance payment to which he would not have been entitled. This type of document provides some finality and protection for the company.

2. Contract Limitations. Determine if there are any obligations or rights that the employee has that would prevent you from terminating his employment in the manner in which you wish to do it. For instance, is there a written employment contract involved with this person? Has your company given the person any kind of rights through an employee policy manual or handbook? Is the employee currently experiencing any kind of issues such as a work-related injury that would make termination either unwise or illegal?

3. Equipment. Be certain before you inform the employee of termination that you either have all of the property back that the employee is using or you have a clear plan to get all of it back. Occasionally, I have seen employees who are terminated and upset about the situation take out their frustration by not returning employer equipment or making it very difficult for the employer to secure return. If you are going to ask for release, you might consider adding a line that says in exchange for the severance they have returned all equipment to the company.

4. Witness. When you actually inform the employee that he is being terminated, it is wise to have another person with you who can corroborate what actually happens if there is any kind of dispute.

5. Benefits. Does the company owe this employee any kind of accrued benefits such as PTO or vacation time? Sometimes, depending on the written documents or policy manual, the employee may have a right to receive this type of benefit upon termination. However, if there is no documentation promising the employee that he is entitled to receive the benefits, the company probably has no obligation to pay.

6. Cause for termination. Be careful how you express the cause for termination to the employee. Most employers I work with are good people like and don’t want to go out of their way to make the employee feel bad. However, if you tell an employee they are being let go because there simply is not enough work and the reason is actually that the employee cannot do the work that you need, you are probably stuck with the stuck reason given. It is better to give no reason at all for termination rather than a reason not supported by the facts. This could come up in unemployment proceeding with the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission or other post-employment proceedings. Unemployment cannot be waived but if there is a solid reason for termination related to some type of misconduct then there may be a basis to challenge in the award of unemployment.

If you need help on any of these issues when doing an Oklahoma employment termination, this is something I have a lot of experience with, please contact me.

David seems to be enjoying it very much as you can see below . . .

In helping people put together companies like this, I have created a list that broadly outlines the steps to consider when creating an Oklahoma not for profit company:

There are certain things that you, as the business owner, can do to maximize the chances that your shield of limited liability will hold up. Whether you are a corporation shareholder and limited limited liability company member and/or manager, consider the following:

• Do not use the entity to assist the owners in lying, cheating, or stealing. Under the old legal maxim of “bad facts make bad law,” a court might ignore the law where the it believes that justice requires relief.

• Maintain formalities where possible. Formalities (including minutes) are required of corporations, but are advisable with LLCs.

• Have management manage. The law provides certain obligations on the persons designated to manage the entity. When non-managers assume the manger’s rights, a court is more likely to be convinced that the form of the entity should be disregarded.

• Provide for financial segregation and do not allow personal use of entity funds. Even in the case of a single-member LLC, the entity should have its own tax identification number and its own bank accounts, which are identified and used for business expenses.

• Ensure that the entity is adequately capitalized for its intended business. Where there are excessive amounts of debt compared to a nominal amount of capital, a court is more likely to be convinced that the form of the entity should be disregarded.

• Where there are loans, ensure that they are timely and properly documented and that they are treated in accordance with the documentation. Where the entity and its managers ignore the contractual requirements for a loan, a court also may be inclined to do so.

If you have any questions about these things for your company, let me know. If you have like these tips, sign up for more to be delivered straight to your email inbox:

It is really simple but has escaped my knowledge up to now.

1. Go into the Clock App and chose the “timer” at the far right on the bottom (see picture below).
2. Select “When timer ends” and at the bottom of list is “stop playing” – select it (see picture below)
3. Select how long you want it play for and hit “Start”.

That is all you have to do. When the time runs out, the music, podcast or other media will stop itself.

“Hello, I am an investigator from the [insert name of applicable government agency] and I am here to conduct a compliance investigation for your business. See my badge!”

Any small business owner would be frightened, unnerved, frustrated and more. From my experience in this area, I will tell you: It is probably not as bad as you think. Take a deep breath and consider following the steps listed below which Bill Pokorny laid out in his article What To Do When the DOL Makes an Unannounced Visit: Wage & Hour Insights:

1. Be polite to the investigators. If you are not moved to do so out of common courtesy, remember that being disrespectful to a government agent with the power to make your life very difficult and assess large financial penalties is not a wise business decision.

2. Contact your lawyer immediately. Make sure he or she has experience handling investigations. If not, get a referral to someone who does.

3. Don’t turn over any records, arrange employee interviews, or answer any other substantive questions until you’ve talked to your lawyer.

4. Don’t talk to your employees about the visit until you talk to your lawyer. Even questions that seem innocent to you can give the impression that you are pressuring employees or possibly retaliating against them for cooperating with the investigators. Most importantly, make sure your time and payroll records are in good order BEFORE the government comes knocking.

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The challenge is that parties typically don’t talk to each after they have hired attorneys. Attorneys, along the same lines, are reluctant to let their clients to the other side for fear of something “damaging” being said. And, of course, attorneys are prohibited from talking the with the other party, when the other party has an attorney.

I don’t have solution, just thinking about the challenge. Any thoughts? Let me know in the comments below.

Oklahoma law requires that limited liability companies file an annual report with the Oklahoma Secretary of State once each year. (You can find the document here). The report is very simple, it’s about a page and you have to pay a $25 fee. If you do not file the annual report prior to the deadline, the Oklahoma Secretary of State will usually change your limited liability company status from active to inactive.

The change in status can mean that the owners of the limited liability company are subject to individual liability for the time the company is an active. The Secretary of State normal e-mails the annual reports out several months in advance of when they are due to the primary business address for the limited liability company. A couple of things I recommend doing:

1. Check the Oklahoma Secretary of State’s website to make sure that your limited liability company is active.
2. If it is not active, take the necessary steps to bring it back to active status as soon as possible.
3. When you receive the annual report form, just take a few minutes to fill it out and send it in or fill it out online.

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If you have any questions about the annual report or anything else related to Oklahoma limited liability companies feel free to e-mail or call me because this is the type of thing work with.