You need the seasoned, approachable lawyers of the Small Business Law Firm SM of Payne & Associates, LLC.

At the Small Business Law Firm SM, we know business matters backwards and forwards because we work exclusively with the business community.  Our lawyers practice in more than 25 areas of business law, applying the most advanced legal strategies of large corporate concerns to small and growth-stage business enterprises.  Our clientele includes innovators seeking to secure and protect proprietary rights, start-ups navigating initial legal demands and expanding businesses whose needs have outgrown what many general practice law firms can provide.

We have helped thousands of dedicated entrepreneurs: from start-ups, to growth-stage businesses with 100 employees or less, to investment companies capitalized with tens of millions of dollars. With the goal of assessing your business needs, communicating your options and minimizing your risks, the Small Business Law Firm SM can help you grow intelligently with a bottom-line focus on increasing your profits and business value.

Whereas large law firms tyically prefer the largest business clients and smaller general practice firms might know only the first or second tier or business issues at best, our lawyers focus with laser-like precision on business matters and have been re-thinking and redefining small business legal services from day-one.  In addition to our comprehensive practice areas, we provide businesses like yours with: 

1.  Low-Cost Initial Consultations and Entrepreneur Friendly Rates

Whether your business is newly starting, growing, involved in a dispute, being transferred, or dissolving, our low-cost initial consultations provide you with valuable insights to help you make the best business decisions possible. An initial one-hour consultation with a licensed South Carolina business attorney is only $45.00.  This consultation allows us to provide you with the most accurate and useful information you need to run your business.

Thereafter, our entrepreneur-friendly rates make it easier for you to address business issues proactively, in your making a fixed up-front investment to address customer, client, or employee contracts, intellectual property rights protections, or asset risk management structures, to better avoid potentially costly and time-consuming legal entanglements later and to more securely grow and protect your business.

To schedule a low-cost, initial appointment with one of our licensed business attorneys, click here.
       

2.  Free Smart Business Matters ^TM E-mail Newsletter

Our Informative e-mail newsletter is a must have for the serious minded entrepreneur.  Each issue is loaded with select business strategies, insights, traps for the unwary, useful website links, and other business matters of critical importance to every business decision maker.  Why do we offer this free e-mail newsletter to current and potential clients?  Because Smart Business Matters!

Sign up today to enter our Free Business Checkup!

3.  Comprehensive, yet Affordable, Business Start-up Packages & Kits

To best assist clients in the start-up process, our lawyers offer comprehensive, yet affordable, limited liability company and corporate formation packages and kits.  Packed with all the documents and forms you need to legally start and operate a business entity, these packages and kits are drafted to include specific company, member, and manager information. You can choose from:

         Formation Service Packages: Our low-cost Business Start-up Service Packages let you to hire the Small Business Law FirmSM to guide you through start-up procedures, explain formation options, and handle all necessary Secretary of State filings. This gives you a highly personalized, detail-oriented start-up experience.

         Formation Kits: Our Start-up Kits give you all the tools you need to create a limited liability company or a corporation and perform all necessary Secretary of State filings yourself. Designed for entrepreneurs who have already filed their entity formation documents with the Secretary of State, these kits provide a safety net to get you through the required procedures.

Regardless of which option you choose, you will receive a variety of supporting documents, along with a detailed legal memorandum and checklist to guide you through important start-up milestones. Formation Service Package and Formation Kit clients will also receive a complementary CD-ROM containing: federal and state tax forms, employee forms, fill-in-the-blank annual meeting and special meeting forms, federal and state employee posters, a select list of county and city business license and zoning contact information.
          

If you’re ready to take your business to the next level or just wondering about general compliance, legal trap avoidance, and liability issues, we invite you to assess your business situation with our Free Business Checkup SM.  This useful business tool pinpoints common legal issues and solutions while sharing strategies to build and protect your business.  Presented in an easy-to-understand question-and-answer format for each business structure, this check-up is designed help you gauge broad risks and opportunities.  The information is for educational purposes only and does not establish an attorney-client relationship.  Your specific questions and concerns should be directed to a competent business attorney who knows the facts and circumstances of your matter before relying on any general information.  To begin your Free Business Check-up TM, click here. 
         

5.  Business Help Forum ^TM 

Visit our unique Business Help Forum^TM to read and share questions and suggestions with forum members on topics such as advertising, business books, business technology, economic downturn strategies, favorite websites, internet help, marketing, networking & leads groups, business tips & traps, and others.  Make an announcement, such as the opening of your new business, or just introduce yourself and your company or organization.

Sign up and

                          ask a Question or Share a Business Insight or Strategy today! 
 

6.  Innovative SBLF Toolbar for your website brower

To keep you informed and working efficiently, our SBLF Toolbar contains: a free streaming radio tuned to online business talk shows and hundreds of music stations, and is preloaded with business RSS newsfeeds from the country's largest and most relevant news services and aggregators, including a newsfeed from our blog, Smart Business Matters ^TM.  It also includes a message center allowing us to alert you to important changes in the law and upcoming events and includes dozens of useful plug-ins and much more.  Please download it today!

               Click the "Stay Informed" banner in the righthand margin of this page. 

You may unsubsribe at any time.  
 

7.  A Passion for Growing and Protecting Your Businesses

The Small Business Law Firm SM was created to foster entrepreneurship in South Carolina by providing comprehensive, affordable legal services to the small business community.  Each lawyer with our firm strongly believes that an efficient, proactive approach to legal issues can literally make the difference between your business thriving or not surviving. As your legal counselor, we are committed to

     Learning your business

               Communicating your options

                         Minimizing your risk, and

                                   Increasing your profits.

      To see how a lawyer with our firm can help your business, contact us.
                    

8.  Our Respected Statewide Experience

Widely recognized for their expertise in business matters, our lawyers serve small businesses statewide through offices in Columbia, Charleston, Greenville, and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.  As a result, our lawyers are able to help clients who reside in South Carolina or who conduct business anywhere in this state and on a statewide level.