Cooperatives as a business structure help maximize resources and distribute profits equally among members. They can also foster a strong community since members work and vote alongside each other. This webinar, presented by attorney Erika Dunyak of Vermont Law and Graduate School, reviews the different types of cooperatives and what to consider before filing.
Topic: Starting & Running A Business
Branding Best Practices
As a small business owner, you want to develop and protect your brand, but you don’t yet have the funds to file for trademark protection. In this webinar, Attorney Christina Licursi of Wolf Greenfield covers steps you can take to have some level of protection from the beginning as well as when to take the plunge and file for protection.
Farm Succession Advising: An Attorney Training Guide
Among beginning (and other) farmers’ biggest challenges is accessing land, including land and farms in the hands of older farmers. Therefore, how those farmers transition their farms to the next generation (family or unrelated) is of utmost importance. Land For Good’s Training Guide provides attorneys with solid legal background material and technical tools to use in assisting farmer clients to develop their farm succession plans.
Your Legal Toolkit for Starting a Farm
When you’re starting a farm business, there are lots of important legal issues to consider, from what type of business entity you’ll form to how to protect yourself from liability and plan for the future. This comprehensive webinar will equip farmers with the legal know-how to tackle these key decisions and start off on a strong legal footing.
Starting your Farm or Food Business: Succession Planning
When you’re forming your LLC or other business entity, it is important to plan for the future. This webinar will prepare you with key questions to consider about succession planning when forming your business.
Presenter: Kim Memmesheimer, Hoefle, Phoenix, Gormley & Roberts, PLLC.
A Guide to Protecting Your Recipes
When it comes to food businesses, preventing others from using your recipes and processes is an important aspect to ensuring a competitive edge. A concept in the law called a trade secret may offer protection for recipes and food production processes. Many companies have trade secrets that are essential to their operation and success. This is a guide that will introduce you to what a trade secret is, what must be done to establish it, and how it is protected.
Intro to Co-Op Formation, New Hampshire
A cooperative (“co-op”) is a type of for-profit business that is communally owned and democratically managed by its members. This legal guide covers common types of co-ops, tax benefits of co-ops, benefits and risks, as well as how to form a co-op. It also covers a few requirements specific to New Hampshire.
Intro to Co-Op Formation
A cooperative (“co-op”) is a type of for-profit business that is communally owned and democratically managed by its members. This legal guide covers common types of co-ops, tax benefits of co-ops, benefits and risks, as well as how to form a co-op.
Options for Forming a Social Enterprise
As a farmer or food entrepreneur, you may want to create a successful business while also working for social good. In a social enterprise, these goals go hand-in-hand. In this webinar, we’ll discuss the details of a social enterprise. And, we will talk about the advantages and disadvantages of common business structures that can be the foundation for your social enterprise (sole proprietorships, partnerships, LLCs, corporations, co-ops, and non-profits).
Presenters: Colin Antaya, Esq. and Kohei Ishihara Founder of Movement Ground Farm
Running a Farmer Operated Food Hub
In response to market changes, many local farmers have started selling their farm products directly to customers through other farmers. Farm produce and local value-added products go right from the farmer, cook or baker to another farmer or business where orders are assembled and prepared for delivery or pick-up. This model is generally known as a food hub. If you are considering setting up a local food hub, this guide outlines the following legal considerations to keep in mind:
• Forming a separate entity
• Terms and conditions of agreements between farmers or vendors
• When a warehouse license must be obtained
• Collecting sales tax
• When a 1099-K must be issued
Step-by-Step Guide to Forming a Limited Liability Company
This legal guide discusses the features and obligations of operating your business as a limited liability company (“LLC”) and provides step-by-step instructions for forming an LLC including:
- How to register an LLC
- What to include in an operating agreement
- Additional filings to be aware of
Legal Requirements for CT Food Businesses
Paul Healy and Bessie Bauman of the Yale Law School Ludwig Center for Community & Economic Development provide information on legal issues relevant to Connecticut food businesses. This webinar addresses:
- Forming a business entity
- Food licensing requirements
- Employment and immigration rules
- Tax filings
Legal Requirements for CT Food Businesses
Paul Healy and Bessie Bauman of The Yale Law School Ludwig Center for Community & Economic Development provide information on legal issues relevant to Connecticut food businesses. This guide addresses:
- Forming a business entity
- Food licensing requirements
- Employment and immigration rules
- Tax filings
Protecting Your Recipes: Trade Secrets and More
Mary Rose Scozzafava, Senior Fellow at Conservation Law Foundation presents a webinar on how best to protect your recipes as a food entrepreneur. Topics include: challenges to protecting recipes, trade secret, trademark, and using the recipes of others.
Copyright Law Basics
Copyright law can seem complicated. But it’s simply a law that says that if you create something, then you own it. For businesses, copyright can apply to things you use everyday such as graphics used on websites and in advertising or blog content. Get to know how to create and protect your copyrights. This guide examines how to protect your own copyrighted materials and avoid improper use of copyrights belonging to others.
Operating a Sole Proprietorship
As the owner of a farm or food enterprise, you choose how you want to operate it. Choosing the right business structure is important because it affects many aspects of your company. For example, it can influence tax treatment, exposure to risk and liability, and personal control over the business. New farmers or food entrepreneurs often operate as sole proprietors. This legal guide discusses the features and obligations of operating your business is as a sole proprietorship.
How to Choose a Business Structure: A Decision Tree
As a farmer or food business, choosing a business structure is an important decision with important implications for your business and your personal liability. This decision guide, developed by Conservation Law Foundation, walks you through the different business structures you can consider and weighs the advantage and drawbacks of each option. This guide is a great starting point for businesses thinking about what business structure is right for you.
Deciding on the Right Structure for Your Business
Selecting a business structure is one of the first decisions when starting a food or farm business. The structure you choose influences day-to-day operations, how you pay taxes and even how much of your personal assets are at risk. This Lightning Guide introduces farmers and food entrepreneurs to different types of business structures. You’ll learn about:
- sole proprietorships,
- general partnerships,
- limited liability companies (LLCs), and
- corporations.
The guide compares business formation requirements, liability and taxation for the different structures. Use this handy guide to begin your exploration into the business structure that is right for you.
Introduction to Trademarks
Your business offers fresh, high-quality produce and value-added foods and has built a good reputation in the community. But, can you protect your “brand” — the good-will and trust you have developed for your business? Can you prevent competitors from riding on the coattails of your good reputation? Learn to use strong trademarks effectively. This Lightning Guide sets out how to obtain and protect your trademark and how to identify trademark infringement.
Protecting Your Intellectual Property
This webinar, presented by CLF Senior Fellow and attorney Mary Rose Scozzafava, provides an overview of trademark and copyright law for food entrepreneurs and farmers,. If you are proud of the brand you’ve built and want to understand how best to protect it, this webinar is a great starting point. The webinar includes introductions to the following topics: (1) trademarks, including registering, using, and enforcing your trademark; (2) copyright; (3) patent; and (3) trade secret.