Business Law Texas
Empire Business Law
Over the years, Empire Business Law has helped with the launch of many startup companies in Texas. We are sensitive to the needs of entrepreneurs. Our focus is to advise founders on typical matters such as raising capital safely, how to protect their intellectual property and to accelerate their growth sensibly.
What You Should Know Before Starting A Business in Texas
When you’re starting a business, it can be hard to know what legal rights and obligations come with running your company. Empire Law has the experience needed for startups from day one - they specialize in helping new businesses avoid potential pitfalls before they become expensive problems down the road! Regardless of the industry, you're looking to do business in, creating a limited liability entity is one of the safest ways to do business. Empire Law’s diligent team of startup lawyers are well versed in all facets of business law and can help you make the most of your liability shield to help avoid any legal liabilities interfering with your personal life. In addition to a limited liability entity, our legal team will guide you as to the appropriate documents necessary for new businesses.
Texas Employment Agreements
Every startup will need to hire employees at the appropriate time. There are many benefits to including an employment agreement in your startup's culture. One of the most significant benefits is that it protects both you and the new hire from potentially sticky situations down the line by ensuring clear expectations about what each party is expected to do for one another throughout their time working together as well as regulating compensation packages, so there aren't any surprises. This point cannot be made enough: creating comprehensive job descriptions helps clarify why they're needed!
Possibly the most important for startups is what is known as the “work-for-hire” provision in the employee agreement. Work-for-hire agreements protect the rights to any intellectual property developed by the employees during their employment with the company as it belongs to the business, not the employee. These agreements can be terminated by either the employer or the employee for any reason or no reason at all. Later down the line, some startups may make prominent employees “for cause,” meaning they can only be terminated for specific “causal” events. Documenting these relationships adequately protects all involved parties, particularly in the case of a potential dispute.
Employee Manuals & Employment Handbooks
When a Texas startup is thinking of hiring employees, the time is right to draft an employee handbook. The employee handbook should document the general employment policies and standard practices of your company. These include disciplinary actions, overtime procedures, policies surrounding privacy, the use of technology, and confidentiality of the startup’s trade secrets or proprietary practices. A great way for startups to think about hiring new staff members is by creating an explicit set of rules regarding workplace behavior; this will help keep things organized while also preventing problems before they arise so you can focus on growing the business instead - not cleaning up after one caused by lack of communication between parties involved.
The handbook must be updated regularly to stay compliant with federal, state, and local laws. If an employee is not satisfied with their working conditions or if they feel that workplace safety may have been compromised in some way, then it's important for them to contact both management directly as well as outside assistance such as HR departments from companies who specialize on this type of thing.
Texas Independent Contractor Agreements
Startups are more likely than other companies to work with independent contractors before hiring employees. Although these workers do the same type of project for many startups, they're in business themselves rather than working directly at an organization's site or office space. The Independent Contractor Agreement is a document that defines the terms and conditions for contractors working with startup companies. One important aspect of this contract, which may not be so obvious at first glance, has to do with intellectual property rights in case any such inventions or trade secrets were created during employment on behalf company's products/services.
The laws surrounding independent contractors in the United States are not clear-cut. An employee can be considered "dependent" on his or her employer for instance because they lack control over when and where to work, while an individual with more independence may actually enjoy less oversight than traditional employees do; this has important implications if you want your business run without hassle!
The distinction between employees and contractors is an important one for any business to make, but it's even more crucial when you're dealing with outside suppliers. If the startup exercises supervision over your contractor then they might be considered "employees" rather than independent contractors- this means that their work could come under greater scrutiny in terms of how much control the company has over what gets done (and how well those tasks were completed). Startups should always protect trade secrets like processes or products while working closely alongside these partners since there are legal requirements protecting both parties from unfairly being treated differently based just on who signs up first!
Website Terms Of Service and Privacy Policies in Texas
The first significant public-facing step for any startup is launching a website. This can serve as both an advertisement of what services they offer and also provide information about how those customers should interact with them if it's through one particular service or multiple ones (e..g., social media account). In order to avoid problems down the line, startups must have fully drafted Terms Of Use/Agreements before going live on their site so there aren't anymore surprises once things heat up!
By using the website, you are agreeing to our terms of service. We reserve the right at any time and without warning or exception to change these rules, as well as limitations on what uses, are authorized for users - so please read them carefully before visiting!
A startup’s website will also want to establish a privacy policy before going live. A privacy policy details what data the website collects from the website’s visitors, explains how the website will use that data, and describes how that data will be shared with any third parties (and the identity of those parties). Like the employee handbook, the privacy policy must be compliant with all federal and state laws. Note that startups should be aware of new data privacy laws, such as the GDPR in the European Union and CCPA in California, and consult a startup lawyer to draft a compliant privacy policy if they intend to do business in the EU, California, or to stay on top of other data privacy laws.
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