When your clients are facing discrimination, harassment, or workers compensation issues, we’re here to help you guide them through the process of achieving a more peaceful and productive workplace. It is not uncommon for business coaches and consultants to recommend their clients do our 3-Day Conflict Resolution Challenge to get them on that path.
Conversely, we refer our clients to business experts when they need help clarifying their vision, mission, and goals or developing processes that align with them.
Services for Business Owners and Managers
- Penalty Resolution (e.g., disability, Paid Family Leave, workers compensation)
- Legal Consultations and Compliance Support (e.g., audits, audit defense, employee policies, employment contracts, severance agreements, confidentiality and non-disclosure agreements)
- Mediation of Workplace Disputes (e.g., discrimination, performance, sexual harassment)
- Continuing Education and Training (e.g., Managing Diverse Workforces, Sexual Harassment Prevention)
Services We Refer to Strategic Partners
- Business advising, consulting, or coaching
- Taxes, payroll, or financial advising
- Bankruptcy or business dissolution
- Commercial litigation
- Intellectual property protection or litigation
- Litigation of discrimination, ERISA, or Wage and Hour claims
- Mergers and acquisitions
How We Support Business Advisors in These Areas
Penalty Resolution
We have resolved hundreds of penalties for employers who staffed their businesses solely with independent contractors, not realizing they had misclassified many of them as independent contractors. Frank was one of them. He was a licensed professional with a busy practice that demanded a lot of his mental energy every day. As his business grew, his wife offered to help with some of the billing and paperwork. Because she was family and effectively received her pay through the profits, he did not set up payroll. They just took cash from the business when they needed it.
When Frank realized his practice had potential for substantial growth, he hired a business coach who encouraged him to hire help for his wife. They found an exceptional receptionist who also provided exceptional customer service. When they set up the receptionist’s payroll account and secured the mandatory workers compensation, disability, and Paid Family Leave insurance policies, they realized Frank’s wife should have been on payroll, too.
We got Frank’s business in compliance and resolved the penalties. We also worked with his accountant and business coach to prevent future ones. Later, they returned for assistance mediating work-related disputes between him and his wife.
Business Transitions
We have assisted many small businesses resolve the personal conflicts hindering growth, restructuring, and sale. Lexi was one of them. She was a founding shareholder in a small corporation that planned to run an online retail store using proprietary software. Her co-owner was an expert computer programmer, but he had a full-time job and a growing family. After he moved out of state for a new job, Lexi didn’t hear from him for several months. When he finally turned up, he told her he was no longer interested in their business.
Lexi was excellent at marketing, but without her co-owner, she could not get the website up. She tried to gather the funding to hire a new programmer. Then, her fellow shareholder asked her to buy him out of the business so he could pay for his wife’s pregnancy-related medical expenses.
We helped them reach an agreement that allowed Lexi to launch a similar business using the code they had developed to that point. They dissolved the business, but not their friendship. With the help of her coach, she was soon on to her next business venture.
Commercial Litigation
We have intervened when collaborators disagree about creative direction, intellectual property, the value of sweat equity, and more. Louie hired a talented producer to work on several projects that took them around the world, where they often didn’t speak the language. They relied heavily on each other for work output and socialization during those months, and they eventually became lovers. This inspired them to build Louie’s business together, although they never formalized anything. It seemed like a heavenly situation, despite–or maybe because of the informality and freedom.
Tragedy struck a few months in, and they only had each other to work through their grief. Their personal relationship ended, and work became awkward. Yet they were both deeply invested in projects in progress and each felt it was easier to swallow some pride than to abandon the work they remained passionate about.
The mediation was painful. The unresolved grief was palpable. However, the love and mutual respect was, too. We developed a plan that addressed each work in progress separately. This allowed them to complete each project and settle up financially at certain checkpoints. Louie continues to work on his own. His former lover and producer has moved on, too, with the help of a business consultant who taught her to leverage her work with Louie.