Business Consultation, Formation, and Succession

Our deep ties to the business community and our long-term relationships with our business clients has provided us with a perspective that recognizes that careful and thoughtful business consultation and formation practices can streamline commerce, anticipate future challenges, and minimize legal distractions from the business of your business, especially during those critical first months and years. Our business lawyers understand that some of the most important decisions business owners make come when their business is just getting off the ground and when unexpected opportunities for growth require quick decisions.

Rushing & Guice provides guidance to business owners on business viability and business formation and structure, evaluating their unique needs and objectives, and discussing with them the many structural options available. At all phases of business development—preliminary evaluations, formation, and succession—we are there to provide guidance and legal opinions. When you deal with an integrated law firm like Rushing & Guice, we can accompany you through all the steps of business formation with an eye towards the future and success.

Starting Your Business in Mississippi

At Rushing & Guice, we make sure that Mississippi and Gulf Coast business owners are set up for success. We can help you:

• Hone your business idea in light of regulatory constraints, competition, and business forecasting.
• Explain what constraints, if any, current regulation might place on your activities.
• Devise a business plan that invites investment and favorable loan terms as well as recruiting and enlisting talent.
• Decide on a unique name and protect your intellectual property in choosing that name and other branding concepts.
• Counsel on the best legal structure for a specific type of business: sole proprietorship, limited or general partnership, limited liability corporation, or corporation. And then, depending on the business form chosen, we can draft the appropriate documents and file them with the necessary government entities.
• Devise a governance structure, if a corporate structure is chosen, and create and maintain the records needed to conform to state and federal laws.
• File papers with the State of Mississippi to collect taxes, along with applications for any licenses or permits. Generally, businesses that operate in the health and safety, environment, building and construction, and other specific industries require licenses and annual filings.
• Secure the lease or assist in purchasing a business site, ensuring that all zoning and environmental laws are being followed in locating the business.
• Guide business clients through understanding what kinds of insurance are needed to protect against risk: liability, business interruption, and employee-related insurance policies.
• Help negotiate the terms of any loans and investments and provide drafting services.
• Develop Human Relations employment policies and handbook to comply with federal and state regulations.
• Create the business templates for contracts with vendors and suppliers, customers, sub-contractors, and other entities with which the business will engage.

Our experienced team can lead our business clients through all of these decisions and choices, and more. We provide counseling as well as legal services to our clients during the formation stage so that they can start their businesses with confidence.

Curating a Business to Grow

Businesses evolve to meet current economic realities and competitive pressures while taking advantage of timely opportunities. The fast pace of commerce requires that businesses learn how to pivot quickly, in order to take advantage of changing market demands and consumer tastes. Making strategic decisions on research and development; expansion into new territories, products, or services; inviting investment or new partners; purchasing or leasing technology and equipment; acquiring real property; or growing through acquisition are all business decisions with considerable legal consequences and requirements of due diligence. Our team at Rushing & Guice is ready to serve your business needs quickly as opportunities present themselves.

Business Succession Planning in Mississippi

You have spent your lifetime building a business that supports your family and benefits your community. One important aspect of business planning that is too often avoided is business succession. When family businesses ignore this difficult decision, they put the future business in jeopardy because of ambiguous intentions and family squabbling.

Business succession planning can prevent these expensive and unnecessary conflicts while preserving a more lasting legacy that will continue to support your family and will provide important jobs and economic security to your community. Here is where our integrated firm can really help. Our business lawyers consult with our trust and estate lawyers to conceive a plan that maximizes your wishes, minimizes tax consequences, and provides for a lasting legacy for your family and community.

Because Rushing & Guice is an integrated law firm, serving the Mississippi Gulf Coast area since 1908, we have the legal talent to help you at each step of business formation, expansion, and succession. Entrepreneur gurus use terms like sales funnels, branding, tracking customers, and reducing risk when coaching business CEOs. Our team will make sure that your business decisions conform to legal standards, have the most advantageous tax consequences, and can be implemented effectively. Whether it is a new hire with a specific employment contract, securing intellectual property protection, meeting and beating the competition, or expanding into new markets, we are here ready to serve you.

Rushing & Guice, P.L.L.C: Mississippi and Gulf Coast Business Lawyers

At Rushing & Guice, experienced business consultation and formation representation is a phone call away. Call us at (228) 374-2313 or fill out our online form to arrange for a limited initial consultation. We look forward to hearing from you and look forward to the opportunity to serve as your attorneys.