Jay Sachetti joined Jeff O’Brien, partner at Husch Blackwell and Dyanne Ross-Hanson, president of Exit Planning Strategies talked about the market for mergers and acquisitions, exit planning opportunities for companies that don’t end up for sale and how companies can maximize their eventual sale price during an early October panel at the first Upsize on Tap event at Summit Brewing Co. in St. Paul.
When the state Legislature passed a law requiring employers to provide paid leave and safe time for employees, Justin Bieganek started hearing differing details from friends, colleagues and peers.
By Beth Ewen
DEAR INFORMER: How do I keep guns out of my business, now that Minnesota’s conceal-and-carry law is in effect?
DEAR GUN-SHY: You must mean the new Full Employment for Lawyers Law, which some wags are calling the provision that allows more people to get permits to carry concealed weapons. Judging by the frenzied activity at local law firms after the law went into effect in late May, the jokesters may have it right.
But what can you do, if you don’t want guns on your premises? Right away, post the signs at your entryways saying they’re banned, says Bridget Davis of Human Capital Group Inc. in Edina. She also recommends you put signs in all break rooms.
You’ve probably started to see these signs around town. They’re ugly, they’re un-welcoming, and they have to meet the following requirements:
• They must say “(YOUR COMPANY NAME) BANS GUNS WITHIN THESE PREMISES.”
• They must be readily visible and posted within four feet laterally of the entrance, with the bottom of the sign at a height of four to six feet above the floor.
• The wording must be in black “arial” typeface at least 1.5 inches in height against a bright contrasting background.
• The sign must be 187 square inches in area.
(Who says legislators don’t pay attention to detail?)
Then, write an employee policy stating that guns are banned in your workplace. It can be brief, and it should specify that employees who violate the policy can be disciplined and discharged. Smaller companies can communicate the new policy via a staff meeting; larger ones can put out a memo. Get the written update in your employee handbook right away, Davis says.
To employees who say you can’t search their work areas, wrong. There’s no right to privacy in places like a company desk or locker, and employers can search. Davis recommends you include that in the policy so there’s no misunderstanding. To employees who say they can keep a gun in their car, right. The law allows guns in company parking lots.
If you have vendors, salespeople and the like calling at your facility, keep a stack of memos outlining the ban, and have your receptionist hand one to each visitor, Davis advises. If you operate a retail business, the law is written unclearly enough that it seems a sign alone isn’t sufficient; one must inform each person who walks in that packing’s not allowed. Davis figures this part of the law is so unwieldy that it’s likely to end in court battles, ergo the law’s nickname.
Be aware that employees are watching your moves on an issue as controversial as guns, Davis says. “It’s making the workplace a little bit more uncomfortable because you’re wondering who has a gun, who doesn’t have a gun,” she says.
“Management is going to gain a tremendous amount of credibility based on how they handle it. It doesn’t need to be blown up into a huge issue. Just address it up front, say this is our policy, and this is the consequence if you violate it,” Davis says.
Bridget Davis, Human Capital Group: 952.926.3300; bd****@*****************up.com
DEAR INFORMER: I’ve invented a new type of fitness machine. I’m reluctant to spend the $15,000 or so it would take to manufacture a prototype. To attract investors, would detailed drawings suffice?
DEAR INVENTOR: Inventors are often eager to tell the world about their latest gizmo. But you’ve got to protect the intellectual property first, says local patent specialist Mark Litman, of Mark A. Litman & Associates in Edina.
For filing a patent application it is not necessary to have a working model, he says. “In fact, you never have to have proved by actual reduction to practice that the invention works exactly as you say it does,” Litman says. “What is required in the law is that you provide a disclosure which enables someone else to make it.”
Just be sure the patent application is already on file before disclosing your invention to an investor (or anyone else). “If you make a disclosure to anyone without a strong confidentiality agreement in place, that disclosure, even for the purposes of raising funds, can be enough to damage your intellectual property rights outside the U.S. and inside the U.S.,” Litman says.
Once the intellectual property has been secured, then whether or not to build a prototype becomes a marketing question. “For getting the investment, if you are trying to claim a carpet that flies, it would be nice to provide a sample of the carpet that actually flies. But if you can convince them that you can do it with scientific reasoning, there might be someone that would invest,” he says.
Whether you have to show or merely tell depends on how well your target investors can visualize the technology. “The investor wants more assurance now than he did three years ago,” Litman says. “There was many a piece of paper that was invested upon three years ago that’s worthless now. But there are some things on their face that are so clearly functional, that it’s not necessary.”
Mark Litman, Mark A. Litman & Associates: 952.832.9090; *******@*ol.com“>ma*******@*ol.com
DEAR INFORMER: How do you overcome the fear that goes along with operating a business?
DEAR AFRAID: Judging by the many conversations I’ve had with business owners, there’s one sure way to overcome fear: Operate the business successfully for 40 years and the fear will finally go away.
Almost all business owners will tell you they’ve been terrified at times running their companies, but their tales always seem to be about the ancient past. No one likes to admit it when they’re sweating it out today.
So I asked Floyd Adelman, a philosophical and experienced business owner in Minnetonka who runs the Inner Circle, peer groups for business owners. To him, fear goes with the territory. “I always say you’re not a true entrepreneur if you haven’t been up in the middle of the night over payroll, or whether you’re going to get that big contract, or whether you’re going to get that check,” he says.
He makes two points about fear. “One would be that fear is really the adrenaline that leads entrepreneurs on, because we’re willing to take chances. No chance is easy, especially if you’re going to start a business.
“Fear is almost a prerequisite to being an entrepreneur because it gets us going into the unknown.” Adelman says.
The second point: “We need to look at the fear and see if that is holding us back or driving us forward. How you overcome the fear is to overcome it with some successes, and allowing yourself to accept successes,” Adelman says.
Many entrepreneurs don’t take credit for successes, he goes on. Maybe they started a business a year ago, and made a million dollars — no easy feat. But now they’re worried about the $100,000 loan at the bank.
Instead, Adelman says, too many owners focus on the mistakes they made or the challenges ahead. He advises you to take daily credit for something that went right. And though he didn’t say it, Informer recommends that you get talking to other business owners, either in a formal peer group like Adelman’s Inner Circle, or in an informal group at chambers of commerce and the like.
Fellow business owners are feeling the fear, too, and forging ahead anyway. Talking to them about it can help.
Floyd Adelman, Inner Circle: 952.935.5801; **********@************le.com“>fl**********@************le.com; www.theinnercircle.com
