Speaker 1 00:00:05 Hey there, thoughtful listener. Are you looking for introductions to partners, investors, influencers and clients? Well, I've had private conversations with over 2000 leaders asking them where their best business comes from. I've got a free video you can watch with no opt in required, where I'll share the exact steps necessary to be 100% inbound in your industry over the next 6 to 8 months, with no spam, no ads, and no sales. What I teach has worked for me for over 15 years, and has helped me create eight figures in revenue for my own companies. Just head to up my influence. Com and watch my free class on how to create endless high ticket sales appointments. Also, don't forget the thoughtful entrepreneur is always looking for great guests. Go to up my influence. Com and click on podcast. I'd love to have you. With us right now, it's Matthew Fonarow. Matthew, you're an attorney. You're in South Florida. You are the founder of Fonarow Law, and you are found on the web.

Speaker 1 00:01:15 Excuse me? For real legal. Your website is fonarow legal.com. We have the spelling, the direct link to our friend that's listening to us right now. You can just click in the show notes in your podcast app. You'll find a direct link to the website. Matthew, it's great to have you.

Speaker 2 00:01:29 Thanks, Josh. Thanks for having me today.

Speaker 1 00:01:31 Yeah, well, tell us a bit about, who you serve, what you do.

Speaker 2 00:01:35 Sure. So my name is Matthew. For now. I'm a business law attorney. I focus on helping small and medium sized businesses with their legal needs. Usually about 90% litigation, 10% transactional. I'm located in South Florida. The majority of my clients are located in Florida, but I help clients across the country.

Speaker 1 00:01:58 Cool. Tell me more about the business law work that you do.

Speaker 2 00:02:01 Sure. So I help clients, obviously, when they're sued or when they need to sue someone, or when they need documents, or they need documents reviewed, or when they're forming, when they're winding up.

Speaker 2 00:02:16 Basically, at any point in a business's life, I am there to help them through whatever they need.

Speaker 1 00:02:23 Yeah. how much of your work is, kind of, I would say preventative, but, you know, just on the front end as opposed to responsive. oh. Business has a problem. Time for Matthew Fonarow to put on a superhero cape and get involved.

Speaker 2 00:02:39 Well, I hope I have a superhero cape. I have some kind of cape. I don't know if it's superhero cape, but, you know, it depends. It's a mix. It's a mix of being proactive and reactive, you know? I mean, I'd probably say it's about 5050. I mean, obviously the transactional stuff and things like that, that's more preventative stuff. The litigation stuff. Sometimes it's preventative if we're the plaintiff or if we need to do something, but a lot of the time it's reactive because you're the defendant. So it's a good mix of both.

Speaker 1 00:03:11 Right. Well to our friend Matthew that's listing right now what would be maybe some of the biggest areas that you see either misconceptions or mistakes that, that a lot of SMB founders might be unintentionally making.

Speaker 1 00:03:26 Are there any major pitfalls that you come across from time to time, or you feel sometimes like just you can't say it loud enough for the folks in the back and anything immediately come to mind?

Speaker 2 00:03:39 Yeah, one of the main things is you have to have your documents in order, because if you don't, your business is not going to or your business is going to run into problems at some point in time, I guarantee. So if you're a corporation, you have to have bylaws, articles of incorporation, if you're an LLC, you have to have an operating agreement. You have to have contracts with your vendors. You have to have a rental agreement. If you're leasing a property, you have to have licensing agreements. If you're using stuff, you just have to have all your contracts and all your documents in order. And a lot of people are so excited to get into business or just want to get into business and do stuff. They just kind of go do it and they go online. Like for instance, we're in Florida, so if you go to Sun Biz org, you can just take a few clicks and you've got a business.

Speaker 2 00:04:28 So it doesn't mean you've got a business. correct. It just means you have a business. So my main point or my main thing would be to get your documents in order. And I mean, it's usually something I'd love to help you with at the beginning of your business, about everything starts right and everything's off on the right foot. But it's something that when we're talking about correcting things or being reactive, that's something that I do that's reactive too, is that I, you know, businesses come to me and I find out they don't have these documents in place. And then we, you know, we draft and we get them in place.

Speaker 1 00:05:04 Very cool. well, I mean, is, are you seeing that sometimes it's easy to, I am in Florida as well, so I know all of us on this. I feel like, you know, the state does a fairly fine job of of making it about as easy as you can. Are you suggesting that a lot of times it's maybe incorrect entity selection? Is is that a common problem or.

Speaker 1 00:05:30 Yeah, I'm just curious, you know, on that, on the formation stuff. I mean, obviously there's more to it. You got to make sure you got your articles and all that sort of thing. but but, you know, when it comes to formation, what are some of those most common mistakes?

Speaker 2 00:05:46 Selecting the wrong entity is probably the main one. Like people arbitrarily just select something because they think that that's what they're supposed to do. Or they saw it on the internet and obviously I'd want you to. You know, meet and converse with me and hopefully your accountant as well. To find out what kind of business organization you should be. and then again, it's just not having the documents. I mean, if you go on Sundays, it creates the most rudimentary, check possible to get into business. It doesn't provide you with the documents that you're going to need. If you're going to lease something, if you're going to buy something, if you're going to borrow money, if you're going to employ people, these are all documents you have to have in place that if you don't have them, you're not going to be able to borrow money.

Speaker 2 00:06:35 You're not going to be able to get loans from the federal government just because you have a son. Busy. Org I can't, you know, went on there and did it. That's literally the bare minimum to get into business. It's not necessarily correct. And if you actually look at the disclaimers on some business, it says that just because you formed it doesn't mean you know, you've got all your supporting stuff and everything's going right.

Speaker 3 00:07:00 Yeah.

Speaker 1 00:07:01 What type of work do you do around intellectual property?

Speaker 2 00:07:05 You know, it's interesting because when I was in law school, I actually got a certificate in all in intellectual property. So I kind of have a background in intellectual property, but in practice, most of what I do is probably, defend, my clients intellectual property via lawsuits. So a lot of it is like, trade secrets and non-compete stuff and some antitrust stuff like that. I did I do some trademark registrations, I do some trademark and copyright litigation as well. But most of my intellectual property practice is, relegated to basically litigation protecting my clients intellectual property rights or if they're accused of infringing someone else's rights, defending them.

Speaker 1 00:07:55 Great. Well, what should I be asking you about? You. Certainly. You said that you do teach quite a bit. you know, I've kind of touched on a couple of areas. you know, if you were to be a part of a, let's say a Ted talk or something like that, and you had a room full of, business entrepreneurs, where would you see yourself moving toward? topic wise?

Speaker 2 00:08:20 Well, topic wise, I mean, one of the things, obviously, is, as you can see, talking about the documents you need to start and get into business and also talk about how you need a as part of your business. You need a team of professionals to support you. You can't do it all yourself. I mean, you can try, but you're probably not going to do it as good as if you had professionals. So I would advocate for you to get a business law attorney on your side and get an accountant on your side, to get a banker on your side to get like, internet person, if you're going to do any kind of online presence on your side and have them all work together in order to make sure that your business is as prosperous and as effective as it can be.

Speaker 2 00:09:03 So I would advocate the team approach and advocate getting all your documents in order, and I'd advocate you making sure that you run your business professionally and make sure you comply with all rules and regulations. And, you know, make sure you have an annual meeting if you're a corporation, even if it's just yourself, make sure you record it. Make sure you keep track of all your corporate documents. Make sure you follow all formalities. You don't co-mingle your personal phones or your business phones, things like that. You know, just basic things that are actually just basic business, practices need to distill down to people so that they understand that you have to do that and follow through with that in order to focus on then going and being a business owner and trying to make money and trying to be successful, you have to make sure all your background and foundational stuff is intact.

Speaker 1 00:09:58 is. Are you suggesting that maybe the risk might be greater? that than most businesses or business owners might believe? Yeah. Like, for example, like, you know, the things, like, if we don't have our P's and q's, in place, I mean, obviously, again, you're helping a lot of people when stuff hits the fan.

Speaker 1 00:10:24 so I just, I, you know, I wonder, you know, how much is too much is is there, you know, you know, or obviously from your perspective, you see people, you you hear about it when someone didn't do something. And then there are consequences to that.

Speaker 2 00:10:44 Yeah. I don't think you can be too cautious or be too proactive in running your business and making sure all your formalities are complied with, and make sure that you're compliant with the law and all the various regulations and things you need to do. And I mean things like, you know, having insurance, you know, having, you know, like if you have a business and you have employees and everything having like a, an employee handbook, just basic things that running your business that you need in place to prevent problems from happening down the road or if problems happen down the road there easily, I wouldn't say easily addressed. I'd say they're addressed in a way that's thorough and planned out, because you have the systems and tools in place to deal with them.

Speaker 2 00:11:33 Like for instance, like I said, if you have an employee issue, you have an employee handbook, and then you go to the handbook and it says what the answer is to the employee issue as opposed to, well, you know, I don't know what to do. And the same thing with having insurance. Do you someone gets into an accident, something happens or something like that. You go to your insurance, company, you file a claim as opposed to, well, I guess I'm personally liable for it or I guess my business is liable for it. So things like that are, you know, proactive ways to avoid issues just by having your business process and your tools in place.

Speaker 1 00:12:07 Yeah. Matthew, what advice do you typically get? and someone likely listening to us? I'm sure plenty of folks that are not necessarily in the state of Florida. but if you were to give advice on, like, how to better hire, a business attorney or someone to provide those services, like, are there questions that you'd recommend everybody ask or look for, like our, how can we be a better consumer of legal services?

Speaker 2 00:12:34 Sure.

Speaker 2 00:12:35 So one of the main things I say, believe it or not, is the power of referrals from people who you trust. So as opposed to just randomly finding someone through like a Google search or, you know, like a paid, attorney advertising position or something like that, if you have your accountant you already trust or you have your. Whoever it is you already trust and you want to ask them like I know you're in business or asking other business owner, I know you're in business. Is there a business law attorney you can refer me to who you know and you trust. That's probably the best way to find a business law attorney, because it's already been vetted by a professional or someone who's in business who you already trust. So you know that there's no, you know, hype or no, you know, whatever behind it. It's actual, you know, truth, first person knowledge as to the hopefully the quality and the efficacy of that attorney. But if you can't get a referral, I mean, I would say, you know, there's so many it's so much attorney advertising and so much third party advertising and things like reviews that really aren't reviews.

Speaker 2 00:13:46 I mean, I would go by you can always just go by Google reviews because Google reviews are pretty, although you can kind of manipulate them a little bit and Mostly you can't manipulate all of them, so Google reviews are probably the next best way after, like a first party, referral to find a business law attorney. But whatever business law attorney you find, make sure that they're actually their focus is on business law. They're not your personal injury attorney who dabbles in business or they're not like an estates and trust attorney who dabbles in business law. Make sure it's someone whose focus is understanding business, because there's a lot to understand, to make sure that you're successful and that, you know you successfully hire an attorney. So make sure that the business law attorney, however you find them, understands business. That's probably the main takeaway. Takeaway in the main point.

Speaker 1 00:14:45 Yeah. Well, your website, Matthew, is, for narrow legal.com f o r n An r o legal. Com. I see you've got a great video library here and other, kind of resources.

Speaker 1 00:15:02 what would you recommend someone do like in terms of, like, value that you may be able to provide, to kind of the entrepreneurial community?

Speaker 2 00:15:12 Sure. I mean, you know, one of the things I do is I'm an instructor for two different programs helping entrepreneurs and startups here in South Florida. And I do that twice annually. So it's pretty rewarding because I help them. I don't make any money by it. I just help them do stuff. So I've kind of figured out from doing that and from dealing with startups and, you know, entrepreneurs from the ground up, what entrepreneurs and startups and things need and also what businesses need. through my practice. So my website, I've got a lot of videos that explain things to you. I've got a lot of other podcasts that are focused on business issues that the average business owner is going to find, and I've got a lot of like white papers and a lot of blogs on there too, that also answer a lot of your basic questions. So, you know, if you just go to my website, a lot of what you're looking for, I already have the answer there, either in video form or printed form.

Speaker 1 00:16:09 Yeah. All right. Matthew Fernando again, business law attorney. Your website for NRO legal.com. Matthew, any final. you know, looking at the road ahead. you know, I don't know if there's anything that you're seeing, you know, trend wise, you know, in, in business law, I have talked with other attorneys that have talked about, you know, the implementation of AI is not without its own risks as well. If you're using an AI enabled tools, certainly if you're dabbling in playing around with what may end up being someone else's intellectual property. Tread with caution. I've heard that a bit. any other things kind of come to mind? in terms of, like, you know, the road ahead or the year ahead. What what what you see, maybe leaders should be mindful of.

Speaker 2 00:16:58 Yeah. I mean, it just comes back to the basics. Just you gotta go back to the beginning and back to the basics of making sure all your stuff's in order. That way, when you arrive at these obstacles or situations, things you've never seen before or changes or whatever, you have the systems in place to address whatever they are, you don't have to go in it blind.

Speaker 2 00:17:23 You don't have to go in and do something you don't know. You have the foundation, you have the tools to deal with it, whether it's an eye issue, whether it's someone who you're in business with, betrays you, and you know you're getting a whole, ruckus over it. Whether it's an employee issue, whether it's a commercial lease issue, just make sure all your foundation and all your structures in good shape, and make sure you have your professionals on your side to help you through any situation. And if you just I mean, if you just run the playbook and do everything, you should be fine eventually in the end.

Speaker 1 00:17:58 Yeah. All right. Matthew Ferraro, thank you so much for joining us again. Your website for NRO legal.com. Thanks, Matthew.

Speaker 2 00:18:05 All right. Thanks, John. Thanks for having me.

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