As a current (or potential) small business owner in South Dakota, you’ve undoubtedly received plenty of advice - good and bad.
In Part 1 of this article, we provided the first two pieces of "bad" legal advice that you should quickly disregard. Here are the final two pieces of "bad" legal advice that you should ignore:
3. "Non-compete agreements are worthless."
Small business owners often believe that non-compete agreements "are not worth the paper they're written on." This is simply not true.
In South Dakota, non-compete agreements can be enforced under certain conditions. For some small businesses, a well-drafted non-compete agreement is often one of its most valuable legal documents.
4. "Always designate your 'employees' as 'independent contractors.'"
Most small business owners worry about initial start-up costs and continuing overhead expenses.
One popular "myth" that small business owners often hear is that designating your workers as "independent contractors" and not as "employees" is a great money-saving technique.
However, there are strict legal definitions of employees and independent contractors. And any business that misclassifies its workers can create significant legal liability relating to taxes, workers’ compensation, wage-and-hour issues, and unemployment insurance.
