Business Advice

[manwinc]

My mother Recently Past away on January 7th, and in her will the Massage Business She Owned is to go to my father, who will then entrust it with me. Here is the Dilemma. 2 Days after Her Funeral, I approached her staff, who are on contract labor, asking if they would still work for the company until the company was transferred. They Refused. (And were back stabbing conniving little You know Whats, trying to work out a deal with the Landlord of the Property for them to open up their own business in its location as soon as our lease expired)

So, Now I am Faced with a Dilemma. I have a business with no Staff And Ownership of the Business doesn't get transferred to anyone's name for another 45 Days. Is it Possible for me to hire on new staff for the Business using the will, death certificate, and attorney as proof that myself or my father will become the Owner of the Business or, Do I just have to wait out the 45 Days until everything goes through?

[TrailMyx]

I'm not sure of your dilemma, but I wanted to give you my condolences for the loss of your mother.  Moms are great.

[Ultima]

Mwinc I'm truly sorry for your loss.

I don't know the answer to your dilemma. I would do some googling and perhaps ask on some small business forums what the protocol is for such a situation.

It's a hard position to be put in but I'm sure your not the first person this has happened to.

Without knowing all the legalities you would think a business wouldn't have to come to a grinding halt if their is a "guarantor" of some kind that can honor all of the obligations of the business (payroll, lease payment, taxes, utilities etc).

[12TimesOver]

My mother Recently Past away on January 7th, and in her will the Massage Business She Owned is to go to my father, who will then entrust it with me. Here is the Dilemma. 2 Days after Her Funeral, I approached her staff, who are on contract labor, asking if they would still work for the company until the company was transferred. They Refused. (And were back stabbing conniving little You know Whats, trying to work out a deal with the Landlord of the Property for them to open up their own business in its location as soon as our lease expired)

So, Now I am Faced with a Dilemma. I have a business with no Staff And Ownership of the Business doesn't get transferred to anyone's name for another 45 Days. Is it Possible for me to hire on new staff for the Business using the will, death certificate, and attorney as proof that myself or my father will become the Owner of the Business or, Do I just have to wait out the 45 Days until everything goes through?

MWinc - sorry for your loss, I hope it was nothing tragic and that you and your family are doing well despite.

I'm not a lawyer, and perhaps others will have better advice, but I don't think there is enough information in what you've described so far and the answers could be different depending on the laws of your particular state. Although a little bit of logic can probably apply here...

First, can you explain "Contract Labor" further? Contracted with who, your mother? The company itself? What were the terms of the contracts? Any clauses related to death or company ownership changes, etc? I can't help but to think that a contract that properly addressed the welfare of the owner (your mother) would have been written in such a way that transference of ownership would insinuiate the transference of the contracts as well thus the employees would still have an obligation to fulfill the contracts even though it is now your father that owns the company. In other words, can they really "refuse"? Of course this would largely depend on the way the contract was written. And, again, I'm not a lawyer and am just thinking out loud

Furthermore, are the clients those of the individual massage therapists or of the company itself?

Were your parents still married? Legally seperated? Divorced? Ever married to begin with?

Was your father's name on any of the documentation of company ownership, lease, contracts, etc or was it strictly your mother who then named your father as beneficiary in her will? It probably doesn't matter in the sense of the company ownership and management since it was willed to him and he was married to the owner to begin with (although in some states, simply being married to the deceased in no way assumes ownership to the remaining spouse if their names were not also listed as having ownership).

Is the business a sole propretorship? Incorporated? 501c3 (doubtful)? etc?

As the current owner of the company, I would assume your father is perfectly within his right to "hire" you as the manager of the company thus allowing you to proceed with staffing and regular day to day management (including management of the lease) as you see fit.

Anyhow, a lot of assumptions made on the aprt of an IT guy like myself but it certainly makes for interesting conversation.

X

[Endless Night]

Firstly My sincere condolences.


I'm also not a lawyer, so everything i've written should be confirmed and i really dont know anything about your business so some of this is probably way off base .. use what you can.... that said business transfers happen on a daily basis and I cannot imagine they all come to a 45 day standstill while they are in probate or they would not survive.   You need to speak to a lawyer the one handling the probate should be able to help you, or recommend someone.  But I would imagine that you or your father can be assigned as acting manager until the paperwork is complete, and if either of you priorly performed such roles then maybe your already assigned.    Your contract workers I would hope are contracted to the company not to your mother herself. If contracted to the company their contracts are still valid and thus if they refuse to perform their duties you can follow the termination agreements in the contract.  So READ their contracts.  If thier contracts where to your mother then probably their all void and your free to renew or fire as you so wish.  Either way it might be a good time now or in the near future to issue new contracts that super-ceed all prior contracts.  Asking your contractors to sign the new contracts will give you an excellent idea of who is willing to work with you and who is not.
   If the landlord is considering going with the contract workers... remind him that your mothers company has been a reliable tenant for X years, and also remind him that the contract workers have no experience running a business and would most likely collapse within the first year leaving his space without a tenant. Remind him he has nothing to gain by throwing in the towel with an unknown entity that has proven itself willing to screw their employer at the first opportunity what makes him think they wont do the same to him given the chance etc etc.

In the long/short run you will need to think about not renewing contracts and cycling out the troublesome contractors... Props to them for wanting to start their own business but bad karma on them for trying to steal someone else's in the process.  Small business's survive on known location and their customer list.... that being said make sure asap to secure a full customer contact list and at some point sooner rather than later you may wish to send out a flyer explaining the change in ownership and reassure them that business will be running as normal and take the chance to get them back in by offering a 5% discount on next visit or other such thing. (If your contract employees are willing to back stab you as you said you must consider that they will slander you to your costumer base in order to secure them).

Anyways condolences once again and i hope some of the above was helpful.. good luck.

[Masscre]

I also am1leaving my condolences, because mothers are super. Other than that I can not help with the business issues beyond what has already been mentioned sorry.

[Canuker]

My condolences aswell.  From Canada I can offer no advice I suspect other than I find it hard to imagine that the buisness would come to a total stop.  You might want to review your mom's files and see what the terms of these contracts were/are.

[Cerveza]

Sorry for your loss.

Use a lawyer. That's what they do.

[manwinc]

Sorry for not Giving More Information in the original Post, I was still a little Baffled from my conversation with the Therapists. (Which I recorded for good reason)

To 12X

First, can you explain "Contract Labor" further? Contracted with who, your mother? The company itself? What were the terms of the contracts? Any clauses related to death or company ownership changes, etc? I can't help but to think that a contract that properly addressed the welfare of the owner (your mother) would have been written in such a way that transference of ownership would insinuiate the transference of the contracts as well thus the employees would still have an obligation to fulfill the contracts even though it is now your father that owns the company. In other words, can they really "refuse"? Of course this would largely depend on the way the contract was written. And, again, I'm not a lawyer and am just thinking out loud

I'm Not sure in other states, But in Arkansas you can hire someone onto your business as "Contract Labor". Which pretty much means that You Pay Them straight wages, and they are responsible for paying their own taxes. Not Really an Employee in the normal Sense. All of them were "Hired" to the Business and not to my Mom Personally. It Means less paper work and Puts Liability on the Individual as Opposed to the Business.

Makes it Very Convenient for short term Staff, exempting the Business from any sort of Unemployment Obligations. Which is Very Important in a seasonal Town.

Were your parents still married? Legally separated? Divorced? Ever married to begin with?

Was your father's name on any of the documentation of company ownership, lease, contracts, etc or was it strictly your mother who then named your father as beneficiary in her will? It probably doesn't matter in the sense of the company ownership and management since it was willed to him and he was married to the owner to begin with (although in some states, simply being married to the deceased in no way assumes ownership to the remaining spouse if their names were not also listed as having ownership).

Is the business a sole propretorship? Incorporated? 501c3 (doubtful)? etc?

My mother Was Sole Owner of the Business and Her name is the Only one Associated with the Business. My parent's were still married, and there is a will that states all her possessions are to be given to my Father.


EN

I'm also not a lawyer, so everything i've written should be confirmed and i really dont know anything about your business so some of this is probably way off base .. use what you can.... that said business transfers happen on a daily basis and I cannot imagine they all come to a 45 day standstill while they are in probate or they would not survive.   You need to speak to a lawyer the one handling the probate should be able to help you, or recommend someone.  But I would imagine that you or your father can be assigned as acting manager until the paperwork is complete, and if either of you priorly performed such roles then maybe your already assigned. 

I hope that you are right in that the business will not have to come to a standstill until the paperwork goes through EN. I will be Speaking with the lawyer soon again about the business, but figured I would discuss what was going on, both here and with other people I know, in order to try and prepare myself to get as much done in one visit, since lawyers/attorneys charge an arm and a leg per hour. (Sorry for Bad Grammar/Run on Sentence)

If the landlord is considering going with the contract workers... remind him that your mothers company has been a reliable tenant for X years, and also remind him that the contract workers have no experience running a business and would most likely collapse within the first year leaving his space without a tenant. Remind him he has nothing to gain by throwing in the towel with an unknown entity that has proven itself willing to screw their employer at the first opportunity what makes him think they wont do the same to him given the chance etc etc.

Luckily, the business has been in the location for 17+ years. The Owner is Willing to renew our Lease, give us time to work through all the legality, And from what I can tell he doesn't want the "Former Staff" running their own business in the location. A very Smart move on his part. In a tourist town of ~2000 People, word travels pretty fast. Such a reputation would not be good for Business.

In the long/short run you will need to think about not renewing contracts and cycling out the troublesome contractors... Props to them for wanting to start their own business but bad karma on them for trying to steal someone else's in the process.  Small business's survive on known location and their customer list.... that being said make sure asap to secure a full customer contact list and at some point sooner rather than later you may wish to send out a flyer explaining the change in ownership and reassure them that business will be running as normal and take the chance to get them back in by offering a 5% discount on next visit or other such thing. (If your contract employees are willing to back stab you as you said you must consider that they will slander you to your costumer base in order to secure them).

This is a very good point here about getting them to sign new contracts. At one time my mom had a Term of Employment Contract in which staff could not Open a Similar business within a set Distance from the Location, but I guess she trusted her staff, because No such paperwork could be found. Luckily the Type of Contract they are in just states that they have to handle their own taxes, and the business isn't held liable for them. The staff that were causing trouble refused to work for the Business any Longer, which at least takes care of having to Fire Them .

These are some very good points about securing the Contact List, and I will probably be mailing out notices Saying the business is changing hands, certain staff have decided to go their own way, with a Discount for them to come in and get a massage from the new Therapists.

Cerveza

Use a lawyer. That's what they do.

Ultimately I don't have much of a choice but to use a lawyer, but I like to try and be as prepared as I can, before Paying someone Extra money while I try and think or in extra visits over things I forgot.....

From this topic I've figured out a pretty decent outline of Questions/tasks for the attorney.

TM

  Moms are great.

I was truly Blessed. I lost my Biological mother by the Age of Five, but gained a wonderful "StepMom" for the last 17 years. I never called her my stepmom though. She was always just my Mom.

Thanks for your Condolences and advice Everyone. On top of all that I was just about to start a full load in College, my transmission in my car wen't out, I was doing first of the Year inventory for the restaurant I work for, and had Multiple Projects on my plate. Life doesn't stop for us to grieve when we lose the ones we love, but I sure as hell think it should