Sunday, July 29, 2012

Business Owners and the Personal Guarantee

Often when people go into business or start a small business they really don't think through the details of what they are doing day-to-day as it relates to the long term health of the business or their personal financial health.

A classic example is the Personal Guarantee. When you go into business you will need to make financial commitments to various parties like landlords, vendors, etc. Most of these commitments are promises to pay. The real question is "Who is promising to pay?" Is it your company that is promising to pay or is it you personally that is promising to pay...or is it BOTH.

When you go into business did you form a corporation? LLC? Hopefully you did because those things can give you some legal protections that, if something goes wrong, you'll wish you had.