Financial Tip of the Day #9 - Learn Some Basic Business Law!
I have a quick story to share with you.
My friend was recently trying to sell his couch on craigslist for $300. There was a prospective buyer who responded to his post and said that he would buy it, and that he and his friends would even do the moving! My friend was pretty excited, but when it came the day the couch was supposed to be picked up, no one showed. He emailed the prospective buyers and it turns out they found another couch for free.
Why am I telling you about this? Well, it turns out that my friend could have held this buyer liable for the sale. This is because any oral contract under $500 is binding, even without writing. My friend didn't care and ended up throwing out the couch, but if he wanted to, this person could have been legally obligated to purchase the couch!
Another interesting business law rule deals with defaulting. You may have heard about people declaring bankruptcy to get out of obligations, or companies getting out. It turns out that there's not only a complicated process to do so, but there's a litany of rules around what they can default on, what can be seized and can't be seized from their possession, and who gets paid first.
If you're thinking about declaring bankruptcy to get out of your student loans, unfortunately I have to tell you that those can not be defaulted on. In fact, even after you declare bankruptcy, you're still liable for the payments on student loans and some other debts.
If you have a loan out to someone and they go bankrupt, you would think that you should get your money back, right? Unfortunately, you probably would not be able to get your money back. There is an order to who gets paid first, and people who just have simple loans that aren't perfected (almost think of a certification process), are pretty close to the bottom. This link shows you a quick summary of who would get paid first in a company bankruptcy - https://bankruptcy-law.freeadvice.com/bankruptcy-law/business_bankruptcy/paid_bankruptcy.htm.
If you're thinking about starting your own business, it's imperative that you know some basic business law. This will help you protect your business, and will also help you learn about ways to enhance your business. Even if you aren't starting a business, business law will likely come up in your life in one way or another. Here is a site I found with a free business law intro course. I can't attest to it, as I have not personally gone through the course, but I wanted to provide a resource that you could look into if you are interested. I am in no way shape or form providing affiliate services for this site.
Course - https://alison.com/course/fundamentals-of-business-law
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