Nolo.com Inc.


Bookkeeping and Accounting Basics

Keeping track of your business's finances may seem overwhelming, but it's not that hard when you know the basics.

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Recent Articles about Nolo.com Inc.

Understanding Commercial Leases

Your lease is a contract between you and your landlord. A lease can be for a short term (as little as one month) or long term, and it can be written or or...  Read more

Will Your Business Make Money?

Some people have a bigger problem than others when opening a new business. These are folks who are completely enamored with their business concept and eag...  Read more

Sorry! A Fulfilling Retirement Is Not for Sale

Millions of Americans buy the retirement industry's familiar song: Unless you save upwards of a million dollars, you are likely to end your days living on...  Read more

Commercial Lease Checklist

It's crucial to understand from the get-go that, practically and legally speaking, there are oceans of differences between commercial leases and residenti...  Read more

The Paperwork Required to Set Up an LLC

To create an LLC, you must file the correct paperwork with your state.  Read more

How to Protect Your Invention when Pitching It

If you're trying to license your invention, you run the risk that someone will rip you off. Here aresome ways to avoid trouble. If you've developed...  Read more

What Laws Govern a Person's Right to Operate a Business from Home?

Municipalities have the legal right to establish rules about what types of activities can be carried out in different geographical areas. For example, the...  Read more

Accounting Terms Every Businessperson Should Know

When you're new to the business world, it can seem as though everyone around you is speaking in tongues. This quick glossary of common business accounting te...  Read more

Negotiating a Good Lease

Almost all small businesses start out in leased premises; many use leased space throughout the life of the business. By leasing rather than owning, you av...  Read more

Starting a Business You Care About

Before you commit to starting or buying a business, be sure you are genuinely interested in what the business does. If you aren't, you are unlikely to suc...  Read more

Partnership: Advantages and Disadvantages

Is a partnership is the best structure for your business? A list of the pros and the cons  Read more

Limited Personal Liability

Some types of business entities--corporations and limited liability companies are the most common--shield their owners from personal responsibility for bu...  Read more

How Planned Development Rules (CCRs) Affect Home-Based Businesses

In subdivisions, condos and planned-unit developments, rules pertaining to home-based businesses are often significantly stricter than those found in city or...  Read more

Insuring Your Home-Based Business

It's a mistake to rely on a homeowner's or renter's insurance policy to cover the assets of your home-based business. These policies often exclude or stri...  Read more

Is It Time to Change Your Will?

Experience teaches us that the only constant in life is change. But we don't always keep up with the important details - such as updating wills and other ...  Read more

Probate FAQ

What is probate? Probate is a legal process that takes place after someone dies. It includes: proving in court that a deceased pe...  Read more

Final Arrangements FAQ

Why should I leave written instructions about my final ceremonies and the disposition of my body? Letting your survivors know your...  Read more

Running a Business Without Insurance

What are the legal ramifications of not carrying workers' compensation insurance, should a claim arise? For better and for worse, the workers' comp system...  Read more

Lawyers Are Paid to Be Buttinskis

The legal establishment put those hoops in your way so that you would be forced to jump through them. It would bear you no fruit to file a complaint in yo...  Read more

Papers Served, Full of Mistakes

Q: An individual came into my office and delivered an envelope with my name on it. I was not in at the time and my office assistant took ...  Read more

Painful Payments to Former Employees

Q: We discovered two individuals stealing cash and we have obvious proof of their crime. We terminated them upon discussing the results o...  Read more

Working Hard or Hardly Working

Q: Here's the situation: An employee is required to punch a timeclock, and is required to come in to work for one hour only on one day a ...  Read more

Sorry, a Fulfilling Retirement Is Not for Sale

Millions of Americans buy the retirement industry's familiar song: Unless you save upwards of a million dollars, you are likely to end your days living on...  Read more

Get the Lowdown on Government Regulations about Home Businesses

Municipalities have the legal right to establish rules about what types of activities can be carried out in different geographical areas. For example, the...  Read more

Copyrights in Cyberspace

While browsing through on an electronic bulletin board, you come across an interesting article on dog training. Thinking it might be of interest to the me...  Read more

Sole Proprietorship: Starting the Simple Way

The vast majority of small business people begin as sole proprietors, because it's cheap, easy and fast. With a sole proprietorship, there's no need to dr...  Read more

The Vacation That Wasn't: Who Should Have to Pay?

Q: My travel agent messed up on my mother's travel visa for her Europe tour. We returned the tickets. The agent says that we will be pena...  Read more

Making Your Own Patent Drawings

You've invented something wonderful. You've prepared rough sketches and the written part of thepatent application yourself, saving thousands of dollars by...  Read more

Buying a Business: Basic Rules

Instead of starting from scratch, you can usually find someone with a business who wants to sell. Buying an established enterprise may be more costly, but...  Read more

Do Your Family a Favor: Get Organized

Perhaps you've decided to make your will, and maybe you're even thinking about more complex estate planning strategies, including ways to pass your proper...  Read more

Deducting Business Entertainment Expenses

General tax rules say that if you incur entertainment expenses related to your business, you can deduct those expenses if the following are true: ...  Read more

Locating Your Business

Commercial real estate brokers are fond of saying that the three most important factors in establishing a business are location, location, and location. W...  Read more

Resource: Don't Wait to Plan Your Estate

Inc.'s finance editor offers a quick overview of the book Know Your Estate by Denis Clifford and Cora Jordon.  Read more

Software Development Agreements -- Just Hold Your Nose and Write One

The late movie producer Samuel Goldwyn, a Russian immigrant with a shaky command of English, was famous for his malapropisms. Perhaps his most famous, and...  Read more

Legal Hiring Practices FAQ

A big part of your job as an employer is finding and hiring new people for your company. From composing job advertisements to making an offer of employmen...  Read more

Cover All the Bases in Your Business Description

How to Describe Your Business When writing a convincing business plan, an important task is to clearly and exhaustively describe y...  Read more

Conservatorship FAQ

A conservatorship is a legal arrangement in which an adult has the court-ordered authority and responsibility to manage another adult's financial affairs....  Read more

Loving Life

Why do some retirees cope with life so much better than others? Part of the answer is fairly obvious: things like getting lots of exercise, keeping busy a...  Read more

Doing Away With a Bumbling Barrister

Q: Can I fire the lawyer who filed my patent application for me and have the patent office recognize me or some other lawyer as the perso...  Read more

What Will You Do when You Retire?

Ask people about their retirement planning, and they are likely to tick off their financial investments. That's all well and good, but it ignores another ...  Read more