Month: October 2018

Dickinson Law Students on the Road – Entrepreneurship Workshop – A Great Success!

By: Samantha Prince

Reading, Berks County, PA.  Eight members of our Business Law Society and I traveled to Penn State’s Langan Launchbox last week to lead a workshop designed to inform entrepreneurs and Penn State Berks engineering students on how to decide whether to license an invention or start a company.  The workshop included a presentation entitled “I Created Something – Now What? Licensing and Creating a Start-up” by the President of the Business Law Society, Kamron Abedi ’19.

Following the presentation, law students engaged in casual Q&A conversations with entrepreneurs and students.  There were approximately 45 attendees and each law student spoke with several individuals.  Conversations included: the best entity to create for the entrepreneur, formation documents such as LLC Operating Agreements, what happens when you change a business’ purpose, company name selection, exclusivity in licensing deals, tax ramifications of operating out of your home, and trademark protection.

Some of the exciting innovations that these entrepreneurs are a part of included: a device to assist amputees in putting on socks, a new type of wheelchair that allows for better maneuvering through urban environments, 3D printing technology, and custom-built motorcycles.

Attendees on both sides benefited. Dr. Amir Barakati, Berks Professor of Mechanical Engineering, said, “I believe the presentation was very informative to all my students who attended the event especially to those who intend to turn their ideas into a business.  Providing an opportunity to ask questions and discuss individual experiences after the presentation was also absolutely helpful.”

Law students observed the benefits as well.  Christian Wolgemuth ’20, stated that it was nice to talk with people who “have a specific idea they are trying to foster and grow, and to be able to provide some insight and guidance on how to make it a reality.”

Bob Heary, ’19, stated, “The biggest positive for me was the opportunity to interact with the students who were interested in being, or already were, entrepreneurs. These interactions bring the practice of law to life.”

Greg Archibald ’20, reflected, “The students and entrepreneurs were wonderfully engaging, and everyone seemed to enjoy the experience. I was very excited to have the opportunity to apply what I have learned through class and BLS to help real-life people achieve their business goals. I am looking forward to the next workshop!”

“As a founding member of the Business Law Society, I had a vision of helping aspiring entrepreneurs with their start-up businesses. The workshop was a great opportunity for us as law students to not just educate but build professional relationships with entrepreneurs in our community.” Sarah Zomaya ’20, Business Law Society Vice President.

The Business Law Society members who participated in this event are: Kamron Abedi ‘20, Greg Archibald ‘20, Doris Baxley ‘19, Laura Bortnick ‘19, Bob Heary ‘19, Cameron Plaster ‘19, Christian Wolgemuth ‘20, Sarah Zomaya ’20. For those who have authored blog posts, hyperlinks are provided.

Our entrepreneurship law students and the BLS members are ambitious and well positioned to help entrepreneurs and the community through a variety of methods.  Many of the students write for this blog.  Others participate in workshops and provide lectures in classrooms.  All three of these activities further our service and community missions by providing ways that entrepreneurs can gain valuable insight about different areas of the law.  If your organization or class is interested in hosting a workshop or lecture, please either contact us at: https://dickinsonlaw.psu.edu/entrepreneurship-workshops or me directly at sjp15@psu.edu.

The Langan LaunchBox is a partnership between Penn State Berks and Penn State Health St. Joseph. Founded in April 2016, its goals include: enhancing community and industry relationships; promoting entrepreneurship among Penn State Berks students; utilizing entrepreneurship to accelerate business development in medical and health sectors; and providing resources that encourage entrepreneurship across diverse populations in the City of Reading.

So You’ve Invented Something… Now What? (Licensing Your Product)

By: Kamron Abedi
Photo credit: https://www.score.org/blog/product-licensing-beginners

Many people think that if you invent something you should start a company.  But you actually have two options: start a company or license the product to another company.  Starting a company can be costly and inefficient for singular products or products in certain industries, so it’s important to keep your mind open to another alternative – Licensing.

Licensing entails partnering with another business that has the capacity to produce and sell your product. In establishing this kind of relationship, you will need a licensing agreement. In licensing relationships, you as the inventor will be the “licensor” and the person you enter into the contract with is the “licensee.” In return for the use of your product, the licensee will pay you a negotiated percentage of all product sales revenues in the form of royalties. The main reason licensing is so attractive is because you do not have to do the work, and you still receive a percentage of the revenue generated from the use or sale of your product or invention.

How do you decide what to do?

Photo Credit: ipwatchdog.com

It’s helpful for you to decide whether you will be able to bring in more revenue producing your product yourself, or if you will be able to create a larger stream of revenue by licensing your product to an established company. Once you determine that licensing is the best avenue, the three main issues to consider are: protection of intellectual property, finding a licensee, and negotiating the agreement.

Protecting your intellectual property prior to licensing

 If you are licensing a brand name, logo, art, or a product that is eligible to be patented, you should ensure that your intellectual property is protected and registered with the United States Patent & Trademark Office prior to beginning licensing negotiations. This process requires consulting an intellectual property attorney who can take the proper steps to register your intellectual property. If you begin to negotiate contracts with other companies prior to registering your patent or trademark, then your potential business partners could steal your invention and become a competitor. Once the intellectual property is protected, you can begin to enter into negotiations to license your product.

Requiring potential business partners to sign Confidentiality agreements is a good idea as well.

How do you choose a licensee?

 After you have protected your intellectual property, the next step is to decide who will be the licensee. Many licensing agreements have an exclusivity clause, which means that the licensee will have the exclusive rights to your product. For this reason, it is important to choose the licensee that can generate the most profit possible. You should research potential licensees to confirm that they have the operational capabilities to distribute the product to a wide enough share of the market (your attorney will refer to this research as due diligence). Inquiries into the potential licensee’s past sales records, supply chain data, and overall reputation in the industry will reveal whether the potential licensee has the capabilities to produce and/or distribute the product.  It’s usually a good idea to ask the potential licensee to provide sale projections as well.

If you license a product to a company that cannot properly distribute the product, then the licensing agreement will be detrimental to both parties.

Negotiating the licensing agreement

Photo Credit: http://crosnt.com/management-team/business-deal/

 There are certain provisions you need to negotiate and include in your licensing agreement.  You should discuss royalty computations with your attorney to determine the best strategy possible for your situation. Sometimes it makes sense to take a straight percentage of revenue, however, royalty computations can be much more complicated depending on the industry and circumstances.

Most licensing agreements provide protection for the licensor by including sales performance requirements.  Such requirements allow you to assess penalties or even terminate the agreement if a licensee fails to meet agreed upon requirements. Performance requirements can vary depending on what is being licensed and what the industry is. For example, in the toy industry, licensors may require that the licensee meet certain sales goals. Such sales performance requirements allow for you to take a larger share of the profits if the licensee fails to meet them.

If a potential licensee fails to agree to performance clauses, you should reconsider entering into an exclusive licensing agreement with that licensee. It raises concerns when a potential licensee doesn’t have the confidence to agree to performance levels.  To maximize potential revenue, it would be more prudent to reserve the ability to work with additional licensees rather than one exclusively. In these circumstances it is customary to allow exclusivity only in certain markets or territories.  Sometimes no exclusivity is granted at all.

In most cases, the protection of intellectual property, finding a licensee, and negotiating the agreement are the most important issues to tackle, but they are not the only issues to consider before entering a licensing agreement. If you are looking to license a product, brand, or other intellectual property, consult an attorney prior to entering into any agreement.  An attorney can be instrumental in drafting and negotiating the best agreement possible.

*This post was authored on October 21, 2018.

Kamron Abedi, at the time of this post, is a third year law student at Penn State’s Dickinson Law. He is originally from Southern California and will start his legal career at Stevens & Lee in Reading, PA as an associate in their Corporate practice group. He is also the Founder & President of the Business Law Society at Dickinson Law.

 

Sources:

https://www.upcounsel.com/blog/top-things-to-consider-when-entering-into-licensing-agreements

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/230557

https://www.amanet.org/training/articles/intellectual-property-licensing-and-confidentiality-agreements-an-overview.aspx

https://www.inc.com/stephen-key/why-having-a-performance-clause-is-more-critical-than-your-royalty-rate.html

 

Trump’s Tariffs are Going to Kill My Profit Margins! What Can I Do?

By: Sarah Zomaya

Tariffs are taxes on foreign goods designed, in part, to incentivize U.S. buyers to purchase from domestic companies rather than import goods. When the government imposes a 25% tariff on an imported product, the U.S. buyer must pay an additional 25% before the imported product can be taken off the cargo ship.

President Trump imposed tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese products, effective September 24, 2018. The tariffs start at 10% but will increase to 25% on January 1, 2019, allowing many small businesses to make it through the holiday season with lower costs. Analysts speculate that consumer electronics, appliances, and furniture will bear the brunt of most of the tariffs.

Potential Effects of the tariffs

While big businesses, such as Target and Best Buy, will also feel the weight of these tariffs, small businesses are much more vulnerable because of their smaller profit margins. With already low profit margins, small businesses may not be able to make a large enough profit to stay in business once the tariffs increase to 25%. The tariffs likely will force small businesses to raise their prices even more, compelling consumers to purchase from larger retailers like the Amazons and Walmarts who are able to absorb the costs of the tariffs.

In response to the Trump tariffs, the European Union and other countries slapped the U.S. with tariffs of their own. These “revenge taxes” are the cause of Harley Davidson moving its production out of the country. If a large business, like Harley Davidson, has difficulty offsetting the tariffs, the future does not look very bright for small businesses. Even if a small business is not affected by the revenge taxes, the small business may still be forced to move production out of the U.S.  Small businesses will see a decrease in profits following the tariffs and may have to move production outside of the U.S. in order to cut costs and stay in business.

Check out this map if you’re interested in how the tariffs have impacted industries across the U.S.

What to do about the tariffs – Economics

Economically, business owners can use multiple vendors to assure better pricing, implement pricing strategies, closely monitor inventory levels, and may even consider taking out a business line of credit in order to combat the tariffs.

What to do about the tariffs – Federal Waiver

You may have read that businesses can apply for a tariff waiver so that their imported products are not impacted by the tariffs. The deadline to apply for a tariff waiver was October 9, 2018. Don’t let this get you down because only 550 of 20,000 waiver applications were approved. Commerce Secretary, Wilbur Ross, has said that most of the application waivers were denied because a higher product price is not a good enough reason to grant the tariff waiver.

What to do about the tariffs – Breaching your Contract

 What if you placed an order prior to the tariffs being imposed?  With tariffs as high as 25%, many small businesses may not be able to account for this unexpected, additional cost. If a small business can’t afford to fulfill the contract because the price is too high or the profit margin will disappear, it may have no option but to breach the contract.  If you don’t have a defense (legal reason for breaking the contract), you will incur damages for the contract breach.  Those damages should be outlined in your contract.

Your contract language is important for another reason.  If your contract contains a “force majeure” clause, you may be able to break the contract without any penalty. Force majeure clauses relieve a party from its contract when performance is prevented or hindered by circumstances beyond the party’s control. A force majeure clause may state that a party is not liable for breaching its contract if the breach is a result of “war, strike, fire, Act of God, earthquake, flood, embargo, governmental acts or order or restrictions, failure of suppliers, or any other reason where failure to perform is beyond the reasonable control of the party.” Even if a contract includes a force majeure clause, a court may not relieve a party from its contract just because the deal is economically burdensome.

If the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) governs your deal, you may have another way out.  The UCC may relieve a small business from its contract if the small business is complying with a governmental regulation or order. This will depend on whether the court determines that the tariff is a “governmental regulation or order,” but in the past, courts have been more willing to relieve a party from its contract when there is some form of governmental action.

Additionally, the small business may have the legal defense of “impracticability” or “frustration of purpose.” A small business will only have this legal defense if the contract would result in a substantial, unanticipated cost increase, thereby making it impracticable to go through with the contract. Tariffs that are implemented after the signing of a contract would seem to meet the “unanticipated” element but it needs to be substantial as well.

If you are unsure whether you should breach your contract and if you would have any legal defenses, you should discuss this possibility with your lawyer.

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*This post was authored on October 14, 2018.

Sarah Zomaya, at the time of this post, is a second year law student at Penn State’s Dickinson Law. She is from Southern California and is interested in corporate transactional law. Sarah is currently serving as Vice President of the Business Law Society and as an Associate Editor of the Dickinson Law Review.

 

Sources:

https://blog.trade.gov/2018/08/13/what-small-businesses-should-know-about-tariffs/

https://www.biz2credit.com/blog/2018/09/06/how-tariffs-impact-small-business/

https://smallbiztrends.com/2018/09/impact-of-tariffs-on-small-businesses.html

https://www.nav.com/blog/how-new-tariffs-could-affect-your-small-business-31001/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2018/09/20/this-could-be-catastrophic-small-businesses-say-new-tariffs-will-make-it-even-harder-compete/?utm_term=.6db70db1ab99

https://www.inc.com/why-small-manufacturers-are-particularly-vulnerable-to-trumps-latest-trade-policies.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/17/us/politics/trump-china-tariffs-trade.html

https://www.jsonline.com/story/money/2018/06/25/response-tariff-harley-davidson-moving-more-production-overseas/729995002/

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/23/small-business-owner-thrilled-by-trumps-tariffs-on-china-others.html

https://www.law.cornell.edu/ucc/2/2-615

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/22/us/politics/trump-tariff-waivers.html

https://reason.com/blog/2018/07/30/tariff-waivers-flawed-steel-shortages

Charles L. Knapp, Nathan M. Crystal & Harry G. Prince, Problems in Contract Law: Cases and       Materials, (7th ed. 2012).

Photo Source: https://smallbiztrends.com/2018/09/impact-of-tariffs-on-small-businesses.html

Photo Source: https://www.maraudermirror.org/4755/spotlight/pros-and-cons-of-tariffs/

 

The Farmer’s Guide to Minor Employees

By: Benjamin Forbes*

Young people's ideas are needed to harness technologies that can make farming an up-to-date industryIf you are a farmer, your time is best spent overseeing the operations of the farm and handling tasks that require your unique expertise rather than doing the unskilled manual labor.  This labor can, and likely should, be delegated to employees. Often times those employees are under the age of 18, and thus considered minors by State and Federal Law.

There are two bodies of law that Pennsylvania employers must be aware of if they intend to employ minors: The Pennsylvania Child Labor Law (CLL) and The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

This post is meant to serve as a resource for farmers who are considering hiring minors to work on the farm.

How do I know if my agricultural employees are covered by the FLSA?

Agricultural employees are covered by the FLSA if the annual gross volume of your farm’s sales equals or exceeds $500,000, and if any of your employees handle or participate in the production of goods for commerce. This includes employees who cultivate goods, help raise livestock, poultry or bees, perform any activities incident to the operation of the farm, transport goods produced, or sell goods produced. Essentially because this definition is so broad, if your annual gross sales exceed $500,000, your employees are covered by the FLSA.

Minor employees are covered under the FLSA if they are involved in the production, transport, or sale of goods that will travel in interstate commerce. “Interstate commerce” refers to goods crossing state lines.

What information must be kept on file related to minor agricultural employees?

Employers must keep an employee file that includes their name, date of birth, and the minor’s permanent address while employed. If the minor-employee is under the age of 14, then the written consent of the employee’s parent or guardian must also be kept on file.

Tax-related and other regulations may require additional documentation of employment.

Do minors working on farms need a worker’s permit?

Minors working on a farm are not required to obtain a worker’s permit under the CLL or the FLSA. However, employers must keep an employee file that includes their name, date of birth, and the minor’s permanent address while employed. If the minor-employee is under the age of 14, then the written consent of the employee’s parent or guardian must also be kept on file.

Tax-related laws and other regulations may require additional documentation of employment.

What rules govern minimum wages for minors working on farms?

The CLL exempts minors working on farms from the $7.25 Pennsylvania minimum wage requirement.

The FLSA allows an employer to pay a minor who is working on a farm a wage as low as $4.25 an hour for the first 90 consecutive days of their employment. That said, it may be difficult to draw even minor employees for such a low wage. If part of your business is local, low wages can harm your farms reputation and ultimately hurt your business. It is up to you as a business owner to decide what is best for your business in light your reputation and finances. After the first 90 days, you must pay them at least $7.25 and hour if your farm is covered by the FLSA. $7.25 is the federal minimum wage.

When can underage agricultural employees work?

The CLL has an exception to its hour and wage rules for minors that defers to the FLSA. The FLSA governs when minors can work on a farm. The FLSA contains different rules for children and different age groups and for children whose parents own the farm on which they work. We will address the different categories of minor farm employees in turn.

A. Individuals of all Ages Whose Parents Own the Farm

Minors of all ages may work at any time if their parents own the farm. Simply put, if you own a farm, your children are not subject to any of the FLSA’s limits on when they can work. However, it is important to keep in mind that your children should not be missing school to work on the farm if the school does not consider farm work an “excused absence.” Information on excused absences can be found within the handbook/policies provided by your child’s school district. A parent must also observe PA’s compulsory school attendance law.

B. Minors Aged 16-17

Minors aged 16-17 may work on a farm at any time including school hours. Again, it is important to keep in mind the attendance policies of your employee’s school district. Most school districts will not excuse absences for work. Encouraging employees to miss school for work can harm an employer’s reputation and may also violate other state laws.

C. Minors Aged 14-15

Minors aged 14-15 may work any hours outside of school hours. However, minors aged 14-15 may not work during school hours. “School hours” are defined by the official calendar set by the school district in which the minor resides. It is important to make sure that you are aware of the school district in which your minor employee works, so you can schedule the employee based on their permissible non-school hours.

This requirement also applies to minors who are homeschooled or attend a private or parochial school. Additionally, the requirement applies to underage migrant workers. Underage migrant workers in this category may not work during the school hours of school district in which the farm resides.

D. Minors Aged 12-13

Minors aged 12-13 may work outside of school hours with the written consent of their parent or guardian. Employer’s must keep this written consent on file.

E. Minors Under the Age of 12

Minors under the age of 12 may work on a farm with the consent of their parents if the workers on the farm are exempt from federal minimum wage requirements. Farms who have used less than 500 man days in any quarter of the preceding calendar year are exempt from the federal minimum wage requirements. A “man day” is any day that the farmer utilized more than 1 hour of employee-agricultural labor.

F. What happens if I violate the laws governing when minor employees can work?

Minor-employees can be a valuable asset on a farm, but it is important to be aware of the federal guidelines regarding child agricultural labor. Failure to adhere to the guidelines can result in up to a $10,000 fine for the first offense and even imprisonment for subsequent offenses.

How Many hours a week can a minor work on a farm?

The CLL prohibits minors that are between the ages of 12 and 15 from working more than 18 hours a week during the school year and 40 hours a week during breaks. Minors that are 16 or 17 years old may not work more than 28 hours a week during the school year and 48 hours a week during breaks. No minor may work more than 6 consecutive days. Employers should get a copy of the normal school calendar from the school district of each farm employee.

Pennsylvania has also set restrictions on when a minor can work based on their school schedule and age. Employers must conform their minor employee’s schedules to these requirements or they will face fines from the Pennsylvania Department of Labor. The FLSA does not set hour requirements for minors working on a farm.

What farm tasks cannot be performed by a minor?

The CLL does not list specific tasks that minors cannot perform on a farm. However, the CLL does prohibit a minor from participating in any of the tasks that the United States Department of Labor designates to be hazardous to children. Minors under 16 who work on a farm are prohibited from operating certain equipment, handling chemicals or explosives, and working in certain situations with large animals. Be sure to review the complete list of these tasks here: https://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs40.htm.

Minor-employees can be a valuable asset on a farm, but it is important to be aware of the state and federal guidelines regarding child agricultural labor. Failure to adhere to the guidelines can result in up to a $10,000 fine for the first offense and even imprisonment for subsequent offenses.

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*This post was checked for currency on October 7, 2018 and reproduced with permission by author Ben Forbes.  Original posts, which have been combined herein, can be found here.

Ben Forbes, at the time of this post, is a third year law student from Penn State’s Dickinson Law.  He is from Orwigsburg, Pennsylvania and a graduate of Kutztown University of Pennsylvania. He hopes to join a general practice firm in Pennsylvania after graduation and ultimately advise small businesses.

Sources:

Photo: https://www.farminguk.com/News/Young-people-face-barriers-in-farming-as-report-shows-13-of-farmers-are-under-45_47023.html

Pennsylvania Child Labor Law information:

http://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/LI/uconsCheck.cfm?txtType=HTM&yr=2012&sessInd=0&smthLwInd=0&act=151&chpt=0&sctn=9&subsctn=0

Information on Fair Labor and Standards Act:

https://advance.lexis.com/document/?pdmfid=1000516&crid=2d2acaeb-92f7-4fbf-9d89-5c01229cd3d6&pd

https://www.dol.gov/general/topic/youthlabor/agriculturalemployment

Click to access childlabor102.pdf

Dept. of Labor quick reference guide to minors in Agriculture: https://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/childlabor102.pdf

 

B-Corp…C-Corp…S-Corp…What Corp?

by

In the past 5 years, Pennsylvania has added another letter to the discussion on Corporations – the “B” Corporation. Simply put, this was Pennsylvania recognizing an ever-growing trend of entrepreneurs being socially or environmentally responsible.

What is a “Benefit” Corporation and Why do I need to know about it?

Traditionally speaking, corporations are businesses that try to maximize profits for their shareholders. Benefit corporations, on the other hand, are businesses that are organized for profit, with a corporate purpose of creating general public benefit, in addition to any other purposes they have as a business corporation. Simply put, “a benefit corporation offers entrepreneurs and investors the option to build, and invest in, businesses that operate in a socially and environmentally responsible manner.”

For entrepreneurs that want to create a business that not only makes money, but also puts a social issue at its core, the benefit corporation, or B-Corp, may the right entity choice for you.

But what ARE the differenceS between C/S/B-Corp?

There are a few key differences between the three entities and knowing those differences are important when making your decision to incorporate.

C-Corp just means that the corporation was incorporated “normally,” or with no variation from the original and most typical type of corporation. C-Corp is another term for a regular corporation. These are the corporations that can generally be owned by anyone (or other entities), is double taxed (this means that the corporation files a tax return at the end of the year and the shareholders have to report their income when they receive a dividend), and lastly, has a duty to their shareholders.

S-Corp just means that an entity was incorporated under Sub-Chapter S of the Tax-code. (One of those variations from a regular C-Corp) Ownership in an S-Corp is limited to individuals who are U.S. citizens or resident aliens. This means entities cannot own a share of the S-Corp! They are also limited to 100 shareholders, while normal C-Corps can have as many as they want. Lastly, one of the biggest and most notable differences, is the S-Corp’s tax structure. S-Corps have pass-through taxation status. This is just like an LLC or Partnership. The S-Corp will not be taxed as an entity because the shareholders will have to report their percentage of income or losses, regardless if the corporation passed a dividend to the shareholders, on their tax returns. This is a major variance from the regular C-Corp taxing structure. Remember, a C-Corp as an entity is taxed on its profits at the end of its fiscal year and then the Shareholders are taxed after the C-Corp makes a distribution.

B-Corps are another variation from the regular C-Corp; this designation is made at the time of incorporation with the Department of State. When forming the B-Corp, the corporation must designate it as such in the articles of incorporation and check the appropriate box when you fill out the form from the Commonwealth. (A link to the Department’s forms can be found here.) The biggest difference with the B-Corp is that each year, the B-Corp must prepare and distribute to its shareholders an Annual Benefit Report describing its efforts to create public benefit during the preceding year. The report must be filed with the Department of State, which makes it a matter of public record. The biggest benefit, as already stated, is that B-Corps are allowed, in fact required, to carry on primarily for its stakeholders. The difference between a stakeholder and shareholder is everything. A shareholder is a stakeholder but a stakeholder may not be a shareholder. In other words, included in the term “stakeholder” are employees and creditors in addition to shareholders. So this means that the Board of Directors for the B-Corp can make a decision which would benefit the employees of company instead of making a larger profit for the shareholders.

Since the pivotal case of Dodge v. Ford Motor Company in 1919, Courts have agreed that the primary purpose of a C-Corp is to carry on for it’s shareholders. In this case, the Dodge brothers were shareholders of the Ford Motor Company. Ford, being truly ahead of his time, decided he would distribute less in profits to his shareholders in order to redistribute more money into the business. Ford also lowered the price of his trucks from 900 dollars to around 380 dollars. This of course cut-into long term profits and dividends, but also allowed more people to be able to afford the luxury vehicle. Ultimately, the Court decided that Ford had to distribute a larger dividend to his shareholders because that is what C-Corps are all about. If only B-Corps would have been a thing in 1919!

Conclusion

B-Corps aren’t for everyone! But, they may be for you if you are a social entrepreneur looking to create profit in your idea while also bringing about social or environmental responsibility. One must be mindful of the differences between each of the many different types of business entities and the different taxing structures which follow. Because of this, always make sure you contact an attorney before making any decisions regarding your future business. Checking with an attorney today could save you a lot of money and headache tomorrow!

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*This post was checked for currency on September 29, 2018 and reproduced with permission by author Christopher Harris.  Original post can be found here.

Christopher Harris is a 2018 graduate of Penn State’s Dickinson Law. He is originally from Maud, TX and graduated from Southern Arkansas University with his Bachelor’s degree in History. He is now an Associate at Stock and Leader, LLP in York, PA, where he counsels school administrators on legal and policy matters as well as advises officials on school law trends.

Sources:

Photo: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/marissa-rosen/whats-working-the-benefit_b_7514020.html

http://benefitcorp.net/businesses/find-a-benefit-corp field_bcorp_certified_value=&state=Pennsylvania&title=&op=Go&sort_by=title&sort_order=ASC

http://www.dos.pa.gov/BusinessCharities/Business/Resources/Pages/Pennsylvania-Benefit-Corporation.aspx

https://ssir.org/articles/entry/s_corps_c_corps_and_b_corps_oh_my_corporate_structure_matters

Click to access ThePublicBenefitCorporationGuidebook_FrederickHAlexander.pdf

Click to access Benefit%20Corporations%20Chart.pdf

http://benefitcorp.net/