Most people start out their married life thinking that their love and happiness will last forever. The unfortunate truth is that a sizeable portion of marriages end in divorce. Pennsylvania residents may be interested in seeing how a divorce could impact their small business.
When a small business owner gets a divorce, the business can become part of the fight. It could end with a person completely losing their business or being forced to take on debt in order to push an ex-spouse out and prevent them from sharing ownership of the business.
Some small business owners fail to create a buy-sell agreement that outlines what would happen to a business if one of the owners were to get a divorce. In some cases, these agreements can limit the ownership rights of a spouse or put in place a process for buying out an owner who is going through a divorce.
Even when ownership of a business is not at stake when a couple goes through a divorce, the emotional fallout of the divorce and the uncertainty surrounding it can have a negative impact on the business. The owners of the business may be distracted and not have the ability to focus on the work that needs to be done. This can have a negative effect on employees and customers.
An individual who is thinking about starting a business with one or more other individuals may be interested in creating a buy-sell agreement in case someone among the owners gets a divorce at some point in the future. Business owners may decide to speak with Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, divorce lawyers to find out about how to create this type of agreement. A lawyer may be able to help create a document of this nature and provide information about how a divorce would impact a business.