At Gutwein Law, we understand navigating tax credits can be difficult. So, we've put together a list of tax credits for Midwestern states to help you get started. Ready for today's blog post? Good! Make some noise for Illinois!

We see it all the time: startup founders ignore the importance of intellectual property (IP) and begin going about their business. Then, they run into trouble down the road. Infringements, misappropriation, ownership disputes, and ultimately lawsuits are enough to stop any startup in its tracks.

That's why registering IP with the appropriate governmental organizations is totally worth it. We'd even go as far as saying it's one of the first things you should do when starting a company (after forming the entity and determining ownership, of course). But, we don't want to make it sound too straightforward because there's a lot to consider when protecting your IP. We could go on and on, but that wouldn't be any fun. So, we'll just hit you with the basics. The stuff you really need to be thinking about as a startup founder.

Let's get down to it then.

Assigning a value to your company is a serious "must-do" for any startup, especially if you're on the hunt for investors. But determining your company's valuation isn’t as straightforward as looking at your bottom line (probably a good thing if you're pre-revenue). It's a blend of science and some art, and there are dozens of valuation methodologies to consider. A quick tip: don't limit yourself to one approach. There's no such thing as the perfect method for your company and utilizing multiple methods allows for an average to be taken, which can help in the negotiation process with investors.

With that in mind, where should you start? Well, there are four valuation methods we think standout among the rest. These should give you exactly what you need the next time you step into the shark tank:

Like many others long before and after me, I had the pleasure of learning Income, Corporate Tax, Estate and Fiduciary Tax, Tax Procedure, and State and Local Tax from Lawrence A. Jegen III. And also like many others, he was my favorite professor during my three years at IU McKinney Law School. But what made him my favorite professor wasn't necessarily the topics he taught inside the classroom.

Professor Larry Jegen taught me countless principles that I still carry with me today – a lot of which I attribute to my enjoyment and success in the legal industry. So in honor of Mr. Jegen, I wanted to highlight five of those principles, all of which I believe are important to everyone in life:

I’m sure you’re saying, “Wait, another alphabet soup of regulation?” Yep. GDPR stands for The General Data Protection Regulation. Heard of it? The topic's been floating around the news over the past couple years, and today it finally becomes enforceable. But how many of you have been paying attention? Hopefully you all raised your hand as this new regulation could have an impact on your business. For the sake of this blog post, let's say you haven't done your homework on GDPR. If that's the case (which I'm sure it's not), we'll start by defining it.