Negotiating Business Contracts: Tips for Small Business Owners in NJ

Small business owners will enter numerous contracts during their time in operation. To protect themselves and facilitate smoother relationships with clients, vendors, and other partners, owners should familiarize themselves with best practices for negotiating contracts. 

Understand the Basics of a Business Contract

First, small business owners should familiarize themselves with the basics of business contracts, including what can create a legally binding contract: offer, acceptance, and consideration. Knowing how to make a contract can help business owners avoid inadvertently entering a binding agreement.

Small businesses may enter various types of agreements, such as vendor contracts, purchase agreements, master services agreements, independent contractor agreements, non-disclosure agreements, and joint venture agreements.
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Non-disclosure agreements or NDAs have become a ubiquitous part of many business dealings. You can see them in employment agreements, licensing transactions and mergers and acquisitions. They are designed to protect confidential, non-public, secret and other vital information. Some are one way, with a company sharing such information to another party, or two-way, where both parties share information with each other. While these are usually signed at the start of a business relationship, they can sometimes be entered into later on when it becomes clear that there will be an exchange of confidential information.

Why did Jared Kushner end litigation over a dispute with two New Jersey restaurants?

President-Elect Donald Trump has praised his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, saying that the 35-year-old businessman could play a role in trying to bring peace to the Middle East.

Whether or not that is possible, Kushner has brought some peace to Long Branch, New Jersey by agreeing to a settlement in a lawsuit brought by two local businesses. Kushner had been seeking to evict Stewart's Root Beer and Corner Café & Bistro from his Pier Village development but has now relented.

Developer Did Not Countersign Renewal Leases for the Restaurants

The lawsuit arose over a lease dispute between the two restaurants and the Kushner Companies, Kushner's development company. The restaurants had been leasing at Pier Village years, but their leases were both due for renewal in 2015, not long after the original developer of Pier Village sold the retail premises to Kushner's company and another company.

Every owner of a closely-held family business wants to know the business will continue—even thrive—once they’re gone. A well run, well managed family business can provide for you and your loved ones long after you’ve stepped down from its operation. It can even support your family after you’re gone. Most owners I talk to expect that their business will continue long into the future.

The reality, though, is less encouraging. According to the Family Business Institute, only 30% of family businesses survive into the second generation—most often due to a failure in the succession planning process on the part of the business owner.

If you are an out of state resident with an outstanding warrant in the State of New Jersey you are at risk. If you are stopped by police officials in your home state they may see that you have an outstanding warrant and may take you into custody. Therefore, it is important that you do not ignore the fact that there is a warrant out for your arrest. The fact that you are living outside the state of New Jersey does not mean that the warrant will not appear if local law enforcement officers, or potential employers, do a background check. The fact that the warrant has been outstanding for a long period of time does not mean that the warrant does not exist or that it has simply been lifted by the state of New Jersey.

What should you do if you have such a warrant? You should contact a licensed New Jersey legal professional for guidance. They can help you negotiate a safe surrender and help you to resolve the underlying legal issue. If your warrant is for a non-violent crime some New Jersey jurisdictions have safe haven programs where you can come and turn yourself in to satisfy the warrant without risk of detainment. It is also possible for an attorney to negotiate a plea deal with the prosecutor and have you come into Court and satisfy your Warrant at the same time that you resolve your underlying legal issue.