#14 The Crucial Role of Attorneys in Business Dealings

Introduction Announcement: 0:13

Ready to get the inside scoop on equity funding? Tune in to TDJ Equity Funding Insiders podcast for an in-depth look at what it takes to access financial capital and maximize your investments, from experienced professionals, including bankers, underwriters, loan officers and industry experts, as they share their unfiltered stories and valuable lessons on securing funds.

Jacquelyn Jackson: 0:47

Welcome, dear listeners, to another exciting episode of the TDJ Equity Funding Insiders podcast, your go-to source for insights into the world of financing, lending and everything in between. I'm your host, jacqueline Jackson, and joining me today is Legal Luminary, with a wealth of expertise in business, commercial and real estate law. This is one of three podcast episodes that we will be speaking about funding and how attorney plays a part in getting funding. This episode is about partnerships. We are thrilled to have our esteemed Mickey Foxx, that's a local attorney, to co-host with us today. Mickey has a stellar reputation, specializing in business, commercial and real estate matters. His intensive experience also compromises compasses, corporate and business consultant, as well as business construction and real estate legations at both the state and federal level. So, without further ado, let's welcome Mickey Foxx to our show today. Thank you for joining us.

Mickey Fox: 1:50

Jackie, I'm still stuck on luminary. That was awesome. I'm just absolutely excited to be here. I really appreciate you having me on and I hope I can help educate folks as to some of the things that are going on behind the scenes before you even get to the point of meeting you or even through the process. I've been practicing for about 20 years now and it's amazing how little folks really know about what's going on, and if I can help everybody out and make it a little easier, that's my goal.

Jacquelyn Jackson: 2:26

Okay, and that's what we have in this show is mainly about today, guys, is that we have found, as being loan brokers, that there is a part where your attorney needs to play, and it doesn't really matter the amount of money, as much as it is that you should have them in place, whether it's a hundred thousand or a million thousand, we have a million dollars. Sorry for that. We've actually found out that that is really important to have the correct type of contracts, because if they're not correct, underwriter is not accepting them. That's the thing that we're finding out, which is either your deal is going to die or it's going to take extra months to get it done. So we have brought Mickey in as an attorney to actually give you educational knowledge, right.

Jacquelyn Jackson: 3:08

We're giving educational knowledge of what you should do is for a partnership and for what is needed on the lending side. So him and I are going to be talking he's from the legal side, I'm talking from the side has been a loan broker, or what we see and what we deal with when we actually deal with a attorney, with our clients. So we're going to start off today with getting an understanding of partnerships. So, if you don't mind, talk about the different types of partnerships.

Mickey Fox: 3:36

Okay, first off, this is just for education, right. Every, every fact, every situation makes things work a little differently. So please, if you get a question, don't assume I know what I'm talking about. Go talk to your attorney. Generally, anybody gets in business with somebody else. They've got a partnership. You don't have to have a document written up to have a partnership, okay, but you should probably have one because you know when you start the deal, everybody thinks they know what they're agreeing to, and then, when the big money comes on the table, you find that nobody knows.

Jacquelyn Jackson: 4:09

It's a different story.

Mickey Fox: 4:11

So, you, you, you have various types of entities that can be out there in the world. You've got just regular partnerships, You've got sole proprietorships, you've got limited liability companies, you've got general partnerships, limited partnerships, um, you've got corporations of all kinds, um, and each one really does a a different kind of job. So it really depends on what your business is, uh, what your investors are doing, or that you have investors or not, uh, and and that sort of thing, as to what kind of entity you need.

Jacquelyn Jackson: 4:47

Okay, which is very important, and on our side of it, that entity has to be legally set up right, so we can't be going you can't be going online and Google and download legal documents and and turn them into us for you to satisfy the requirement for a loan. That's why we brought him on, so it's important to have those documents in the right ones. That's legally done, am I correct?

Mickey Fox: 5:14

We need to have them, so what that looks like when we say legally done well, generally in order to do business in the state of or in state of Texas. I'm sorry, I'm all. I also have a license in Connecticut to do business in the state of Connecticut or Texas. I did it again, see, before the show. They're not telling you, but Jackie was doing all the flub ups. And now here I am. She pushed it off on right.

Mickey Fox: 5:36

But in order to do business, you need to file with a security state. Um, you have to do that. The law requires that you do that. That's why, that way, people can look you up online, figure out who you are, who to mail all the hate mail to, or where to, where to mail it at Um, and that sort of thing. But that's not everything you need in order to get all the protections and the other benefits of having an LLC or a corporation.

Mickey Fox: 6:03

Um, there's, there's some paperwork that needs to go on in the background. So we start first with just the idea of the agreement. So, even if you're a sole proprietorship and you want to have an LLC, you need to have a document that sets out what your liabilities are, what your limitations on uh, on those liabilities are, and what amounts you want to contribute in capital to your company or whatever. When you set up an entity, you say I'm going to put some money into that entity and then that's all y'all got to collect from. Okay, all right, you can't come back and hit me personally, you can't have my house, you can't have my truck, that kind of stuff. So you want to have that agreement in place. Um, in the way I talk about agreements with people. It's it's pretty simple. That agreement's a discussion you have either with yourself or with your partners, um, to talk about what everybody expects of everybody else. That agreement's not there for when things are going good Cause when the money's rolling in, ain't nobody cares.

Jacquelyn Jackson: 6:59

Nobody's saying that, even read it.

Mickey Fox: 7:02

And that's the, that's the absolute truth. Uh, but if you have a good discussion beforehand, then when things get rough, you've got something you can fall back on. You can say, okay, here's what we agreed we were going to do if this happens, or here's what we agree we're going to do if that happens.

Mickey Fox: 7:19

And so you've got that agreement to fall back on the way. I tell people it's like this is kind of like a prenuptial agreement. You're going to get into a business marriage, uh, with that person and if something happens, that prenuptial agreement might save you from divorce. Nobody, business divorces are as bad, if not worse, than, regular divorces, and and I'll tell you that business becomes your child, right, and you want to keep your child right and you want custody. You don't want you know visitation schedules and things like that, right, so you can set all of that out in that.

Mickey Fox: 7:54

In that first document. With that you're going to need a certificate of formation from the secretary of state or a certificate of incorporation it depends on what you do and that's the first legal document that every bank's going to ask for, exactly Right, that, that notice that you've actually filed with the secretary of state and that's going to carry things like who your agent for services, and it's going to carry you know what the name of the company is, the business address, maybe the mailing address, that kind of stuff. The second thing that banks going to want is a copy of your business document. You're you're operating agreement or your corporate agreement.

Jacquelyn Jackson: 8:33

And I want to say on that how important that is. It's amazing how many business come to us to set up as LLCs or in corporate and they do not have an operating agreement. And guys, I tell people and you're going to give me your side, I'm going to give you my side from a lender, from a lender point of view, that operating agreement, it also tells us the ownership and who's doing what in the company, who's consigned the contract, who can open up this bank account, who could actually do this loan. That's what's in there. So you don't need to go, you don't need to take that lightly.

Jacquelyn Jackson: 9:04

That's what I'm saying and we talking a partnership because, like you said, when you go into that possibility of divorce, that can save you because it shows what we all agreed to. So you can just sit down because this is what you said and we're going to move on, or it tells that it's not going to work anymore. If nobody don't want to do it, then you're dissolved it, or whatever the case may be. So that's what we see, personally a little bit, but also on the lending side, if you don't have that operating agreement where they can go in there and see who's the owners, because they're going to check the owners. If you're 20% ownership at any business, they want to check everybody, so that's why that's important as well too, on my end, on your end.

Mickey Fox: 9:39

Well, on top of what you're talking about, I think you're talking about also the company having who has the authority within the company to make these transactions happen, and that's the thing to go back in there right. Some companies. Let's just talk about an LLC, for instance. Sometimes they're managed by members, Sometimes they're managed by managers. A manager doesn't really have to be a member of that LLC. It can be a third person or a company that's doing the management of that company.

Mickey Fox: 10:10

But, that person or that individual, that entity is going to have outlined in the document what their powers are, what they can do without having to get a vote of the members. So generally, what we do is we come through and, as we're coming into a transaction that involves funding and things like that, we're looking for resolutions that give the authority and the blessing to the transaction, that approve the individual whoever it is it's going to be signing the documents. That proves that and kind of outlines that process. So what we want to do is we want to have that documentation proper as well, because that's what the banks are going to be asking for. This is what the underwriters are going to be looking for. Does this person have the authority to sign these documents, or do I need more than one person to sign these documents Exactly?

Jacquelyn Jackson: 11:01

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Announcement: 11:56

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Jacquelyn Jackson: 12:27

That's why I tell you it's so important and operating agreement, I know they have more lines and they do. You do not need to go and get one offline. You really need to get with an attorney.

Mickey Fox: 12:39

Let me talk on this. Okay, you know, it's kind of like the Maytag repairman right, you can pay me now or you can pay me later. What I tell people is look, let's do things simply and inexpensively for you at the beginning and it looks like it's really cheap. You can go online and grab a company agreement or something like that. But you really have to be careful. I've had more than one occasion where we had to fix an awful lot of stuff and it costs a lot of money.

Mickey Fox: 13:07

When you think about it, this is generally going to read through this thing and then they got to talk to you and find out what it is you actually intended, what you actually wanted. They're going to have to know what's going on with this transaction and figure out what you really need. Then there may be a bunch of paperwork They've got to. You know drop another operating agreement. There may have to be some resolutions and some other things, and that's just to fix that one small problem. So it's much better to come up beforehand and sit down and speak with an attorney. Find out if you're doing the right kind of thing. First, find out if I've got an individual I was just talking to, who they've held themselves out as an S-Corp and they're actually an LLC.

Mickey Fox: 13:49

S-corp is a tax election that you make and it doesn't affect the company at all. It doesn't change the status of the company. It merely changes how you get taxed. But that S-Corp election, a lot of your CPAs will tell you well, that's the thing to do, that's what you've got to do. They can come back and bite you in the tail end when you go to sell. There's your king. There's a deal about how you value the company and about how you value it for tax on that sale. So it's good to come and talk to somebody first, get an understanding about what's going on and figure out is this the right vehicle for me?

Jacquelyn Jackson: 14:23

And so let me make sure this because, again, we're all learning this. So, as an attorney, is that where we should look at bringing an attorney in to help us with that piece. Even though you talked about the taxes and all that, we should come to you when it comes to that operating agreement based on what me and my partners want to do.

Mickey Fox: 14:40

Yeah, there are a lot of CPAs out there who will file documents. I'm not really comfortable with a CPA filing anything that has to do with incorporating an entity.

Jacquelyn Jackson: 14:51

Yeah.

Mickey Fox: 14:52

I agree they understand at least the bookkeeping, accounting and sometimes the tax side. Not all accountants are created equal, but it's good to come down and sit with me for an hour and let me talk to you, or let some of their attorneys sit down, talk to you and figure out what is really good for your business. What is it you want to do, what will save you the most money in the long run and what makes sense. There's no sense if you're just doing a landscaping service and that's all you're doing is mowing lawns. There's no reason to have a corporation. It's just extra tax, extra forms, extra filings, things you don't need to mess with. Where you can do something, maybe with a very simple LLC.

Jacquelyn Jackson: 15:36

So what I'm seeing is that which I think we all need to learn that because we have to be real.

Jacquelyn Jackson: 15:41

You all know that a lot of stuff when it comes to business is so many myths out there, and it's a lot of truth, a lot of falsehood, but it's also a lot of stuff that doesn't pertain to you Doesn't mean it's wrong, it's just not fitting for you. Like what you just saying, based on that business and I'm going to say this to add to what you're saying when you don't have it set up, like you're saying, you went through the process and then, like you had that one that you had to do later In our case, that's called time and what happens is this when you're looking at three months, four months for you to possibly get approval which we can get, approval is the background stuff that didn't work out, which is now they're dealing with your contract because they got them and they like, oh, this got to be corrected. That's time, and some of the lenders will only give you an offer that's good for maybe two weeks to 30 days.

Mickey Fox: 16:23

And with the way the interest rates have been running, it's hard to tell what's going to happen next.

Mickey Fox: 16:29

Or even whether the banks are going to be able to lend. Right now in the commercial space, I know our regional banks are really getting pressed so they're not making a lot of loans and it's really impacting business. So if you can get everything in line and have all your ducks in a row, have a nice little package ready, take with you to you, then you're going to save time, you're going to save effort and it's going to go a lot faster in general. Right, you're just going to get it all together. It's really important for me to emphasize be careful if you try to download something from the internet or if you listen to a friend. Everybody's situation is different and lawyers always say you know, their famous answer is it depends, and it does. It depends on the facts whether you've got investors that are actually investors, whether you've got partners who are actually partners, whether you've got Mima, who is your favorite grandson, and she'll make you a loan.

Jacquelyn Jackson: 17:31

All that, the Profile Project, it all depends on it and not the same.

Mickey Fox: 17:35

That's absolutely true. So take a little time. It's worth the hour or two that you may have to pay for.

Mickey Fox: 17:43

Just to sit and talk and get some good ideas of what's going on. My job at least this is the way I see it my job as an attorney is to educate you so that you have the best possible information to make business decisions that you can make. There may be some liability potential out there, some exposure, but if you're aware of it you can choose whether to deal with it or to put it aside. If you don't have that information, you don't make the choice. Choice gets made for you.

Mickey Fox: 18:15

Mmm, that is so let's be in control of our.

Jacquelyn Jackson: 18:18

So, yeah, lack of knowledge doesn't mean it ain't gonna happen just because you didn't know about it. It still will happen, so that's understandable. So basically what we're trying to emphasize, what you guys today Like. So this one is about partnerships, because the end of with us, with the loans, once you bring in a person with a partnership, or you want to buy them In, you want to buy into a partnership or you want to buy them out of a partnership, that contract Determines. If you can, I cannot do that and that's what people don't understand. We've actually had a client that actually came to us that, uh, wanted to buy out one of their partners and so happened to want to buy him out, but I don't know how it was done, but it was done that he had to buy him out four times the price.

Mickey Fox: 19:01

Now, how they got in there and they didn't mention, didn't see it, the four years later, I have no idea what I will tell you is is that people will pull these contracts down offline or get them, yeah, or some, you know, reuse somebody else's thing and they'll miss a few changes and that's what you change is okay.

Mickey Fox: 19:17

But really, before you get involved in that negotiation to buy that partnership or to sell, you should probably talk with your attorney and your account and in here's why one. You want to know what this thing is actually worth. And there are several different ways to value a business, whether it be a multiple on gross earnings or net revenue, or if it's an inventory itemization and so forth. The other thing is is you may not want to buy the company because you don't want to buy the liability. You maybe you just want to buy the assets. That's right. You can do an asset sell there.

Jacquelyn Jackson: 19:55

These are the kind of things that can get planned out and With an attorney, was this house a whole lot for us to do by ourselves? I'm just being what we look at in order for it to be right. You guys, your stuff, look right. The ones that come in with attorneys that have done just what you said it is smoother, is laid out, we close, is clean and you know what you're gonna spend up.

Mickey Fox: 20:18

Yeah, you know To the penny, almost really, what you're gonna be spending on this, rather than coming into a deal and having any surprise fees or surprise amounts that you could have pay out. Yeah, everybody, everybody knows what it's like, you know, to go in and do a closing on their house and then look at these extra charges and say, you know what are the? I had to bring money to the clothes. What if the bank was taking care of that? So my goal, my goal, is to make sure that you understand, before this happens, what's gonna be expected of you, what your valuation is, what the costs are gonna be.

Mickey Fox: 20:56

It's not always possible to get it down, you know, depending, but that's my goal. Let's get that out there. So so you know what you know. What are you getting into? Nobody wants to get into a bad thing. Do diligence is more than just doing the valuation. It's making sure that you've got all your records straight, that your accounting is done right, that your inventory is clear, that you don't have leans lying around out there. It's part of underwriting, right, but it if I can do that up front and maybe do a lean check, then we can find out if you've got a lean and we get that thing paid off exactly, not the middle of the loan, but before you ever get there exactly, exactly because it was.

Jacquelyn Jackson: 21:34

It would mess you up and you don't want to have that to happen, but you're not having those things together in the first place. That's right now.

Jacquelyn Jackson: 21:40

We're gonna actually in our series we got what we're gonna be talking about purchasing business, so that's gonna be one of ours. That's in this series that we'll talk about. Well, you can kind of lay that out, because I think, again, we know from people coming to us that they haven't looked at all of that and I think a lot of is that we're running our business off our hill. We don't think, oh, I can kind of get past some of this stuff with the CPA and some of this stuff. Guys, if you try to do any type of funding, if you try to do lending, I'm telling you need those guys. I didn't realize how important you guys were into. We start seeing you showing up at the closing, whether it's on a zoom call or phone call, you're there. So, even if you don't have an attorney, you're gonna have to get a turn, whether you're gonna pay the lender to use theirs or you need to get your own or have it go when I have a turn, hey the lender to use theirs.

Mickey Fox: 22:24

That attorney does not represent, you know and they say that they'll say it. But you know you're gonna be doing contracts, doing other things and you're gonna be signing on the dotted line, but that is not your attorney and that attorney that is not only has the banks interest Art, and that's what the attorney has to do. It's not that they're being mean right exactly.

Mickey Fox: 22:45

It's. It's really good To know simple things like you know, if you're running your business bank account out of your personal checking account, that's gonna create a problem when you get to underwriting.

Jacquelyn Jackson: 22:57

You're gonna have it, it's yeah.

Mickey Fox: 22:59

Yeah, and and it creates another problem Just legally, if you get sued because they're gonna be looking at your personal bank account and you're just intermingled, yeah what you shouldn't do. Yeah, and that's that's. It's really common With with very small businesses. I see so many you know folks who are just out Trying in a long making a living and they're doing okay making a living. They co-mingle all their funds. They they have a mess in their receipts.

Jacquelyn Jackson: 23:28

They're invoicing it's nothing Long-lending we can do with that, because once you put that person on your crate, that's something we see. That's why so we always excited about bringing you home. Because, I'll be honest, I've been in business for over 25 years and I will tell you the truth personally, I didn't think you don't need an attorney until you about to get sued. That's what I thought you should have in, sorry. Well, I found out that is totally wrong, but it's. This is called preparation and when you prepare, your attorney needs to be on that list so you can be prepared for whatever may come, based on you just having the right contracts. And that's what I found out personally on my business as I evolved.

Jacquelyn Jackson: 24:04

I have a con. I have attorneys that come in and do the certain contracts and they are actually what is it? When you, I'll be able to go to court. My attorney says called way can be legally. What's the word? It's a word that y'all use. Go to court for. Yeah, it got to be. Where you can legally fight it. In other words, because, if I breathe like, I brought him a contract.

Mickey Fox: 24:27

Lots of put. They put arbitration clauses in contract. Yeah, I didn't have an arbitration clause in there, you'll never get to court.

Jacquelyn Jackson: 24:32

Well, that's what I'm saying. I have one that I had put offline in the beginning, and and so happen. I turned around and went to you and he said, yeah, this is not good. I can't go to court with this. Yeah, just so I had to pay for it, but it was the best thing I ever paid for, because, from that point on, I mean it's a certain respect you get when people read the contracts and stuff and they see, wow, you got an attorney, dude, you know.

Mickey Fox: 24:56

They know that you have taken yourself serious enough. You're in the business.

Jacquelyn Jackson: 25:00

That's what the lenders look at. They do.

Mickey Fox: 25:02

To go hire an attorney to get something that makes sense, and I do a lot of negotiations where I have a client in the other party, maybe unrepresented. My goal is not to mess over the other party, Because these folks want to do business together and so really that's what I want. I want to get the business deal done so that they can have that relationship and they can go on and both of them make a lot of money the more money they make the happier I am.

Mickey Fox: 25:30

They keep coming back Exactly, so it's really important to have. We have elements in a contract that are necessary. So that's probably what that lawyer was telling you. You've got to know who both the parties are. You've got to know exactly what the contract's about. You've got to know how much it's for. You've got to know when it has to be done. So every contract is a promise in exchange for another promise. If you do this, I'll do that. If you don't have that clearly defined in your contract, then you're going to be in court trying to figure out what was it we really meant, see, and when, the lender's asked for those agreements.

Jacquelyn Jackson: 26:10

They're looking for just that they want to see. One has been put together by an attorney. Is it official? Does it have everything in it it needs to have? Because that tells them especially. Let's just say, you're trying to get a million dollars from a lender. He needs to know You're careful. I mean no.

Mickey Fox: 26:25

So one of the things that I tell people is it's not just that you get to contract with everything in it that needs to be there, but it's got to be put together in a way that the underwriter expects to see it Gotcha.

Jacquelyn Jackson: 26:38

It was one of the comfortable ways. It is OK.

Mickey Fox: 26:40

If people are really comfortable with something, they don't look as closely. You're right, you are right, I agree it looks like everything is in order, everything is fine. So that little bit of time and effort you spent, a little bit of money you spent getting an attorney to draft it up, it's going to help out Because everything is kind of.

Jacquelyn Jackson: 26:55

There's just kind of a way we do things laying everything out, and it's definitely much easier than when I have clients that come in and I will tell you everyone that come in here and I had an attorney and we're like you're going to get an attorney for this or they're going to help you, whatever.

Jacquelyn Jackson: 27:08

It has been a lot longer. The process is longer, guys. So if you could just have an attorney to review your documents, like I said, pay that money to get it reviewed before you actually come in to us will be good. Now, understand us being a loan broker, we will refer you, we will tell you you need to get an attorney because we can't help you, but anyway. So basically that's what I'm finding out that is important to have you guys on the team before you really really need you, and it's not just to get sued, but it's just keeping your paperwork properly right. So, and it also works as well if you have investors that want to look into you, those guys are smart too. They want to see your financials, they want to see the agreements.

Mickey Fox: 27:49

They want to see yeah, they want to see that everything's in order. They want to understand that you've got your accounting in order, that you've got your business processes in order, and the larger you are, they want to see policies and procedures. They want to look at the agreements that you have with your Exactly.

Mickey Fox: 28:03

Let's pull this up. I'll throw this out there. Just last week, the Department of Labor changed the way it looks at independent contractors, and it changed it radically. So, having a good attorney that you have a relationship with, I sent a memo out to all of my clients. Here are the changes, here are the things that have happened, here's what you need to look for and, by the way, give me a ring and we'll see if this is going to affect you. If you're building houses, if you're doing any kind of work where you have 1099 employees the contractors it is possible the Department of Labor comes back and says, no, no, we're reclassifying them as employees. That doesn't sound like a bad deal, but now you're on a hook for taxes, unemployment insurance, work, all of that stuff. And so that's why, having that relationship with an attorney, we can just pick up the phone and say, hey, mickey man, I got this problem.

Mickey Fox: 29:00

And you'd be amazed how many times that happens. I'd be driving down the road. I'd get somebody to call me up and say hey, I've got a contract with somebody that X, Y and Z is happening, and is this something we need to do something about?

Jacquelyn Jackson: 29:11

now.

Jacquelyn Jackson: 29:11

Or, and I'll tell them, and that relationship is really important. I know my guys and my girls too. They go back and forth my clients with their attorneys and their CPAs and I see that they're like, let me call my attorney. And then they call me I can give me an answer. So I know that relationship is important. So it is really when you start growing and I think people don't think, not that you try to get a million dollars, but even when you're starting out, just to have that set up in the beginning will save you so much going forward with your business. Because you all have a tendency to keep us kind of straight. I know that now you keep us, you straighten us out because the way we're going is not the best way for us. So an attorney can look at. This is what you need to have and understand. They have to understand the underwriters. They think like attorneys. The closers they're like attorneys.

Mickey Fox: 30:02

They're looking. They have some very specific things that they have to do. They have a checklist. Every closer to the checklist and that's exactly what I got a checklist, you're right and you go down the checklist and you're looking for each item and you want to be able to check it off. And if I give you a package where all of those items are right out there in front, then you can get to close.

Jacquelyn Jackson: 30:21

Right.

Mickey Fox: 30:22

If not, you've got to stop and you've got to look through things and try to figure out if this is, if this particular section of this contract, meets that requirement or not. I don't want you to have to look at that, right? I don't want you to have to make a call. I want to make it easy. The other thing is is that a good attorney, somebody who's really invested in you and your business, is one who's going to educate you? They're going to know who you are as a person, know kind of what your risk profile is. They're going to understand your business. Like I see for contractors, you're going to know the difference when you're in the parts mouth and if you don't, well, you probably need to go to somebody else, right?

Mickey Fox: 31:01

Because otherwise you're spending all your time. You're going to pay them to learn. Oh, and why pay an attorney to learn something?

Jacquelyn Jackson: 31:07

That's ridiculous, get in what they specialize.

Jacquelyn Jackson: 31:08

And we brought you on because, like I said, a lot of people call us real estate.

Jacquelyn Jackson: 31:12

You can help them with real estate, you can help them with contracts, and so that's why we have you as our partnership, which definitely want to let you all know that you can reach out to Mickey Fox on your own. You can pretty much Google and find them, but if not, you can reach out to us as well, because we definitely keep them there. If people need anything, we refer them to him, because when it comes to real estate and business contracts and things of that nature, we needed to make sure there was attorneys that were available that could fit what you guys are looking for, like what he's saying you don't need to be paying nobody to learn and because that's what they're going to charge you for, billing wise. So that's why it's important to reach out to someone like Mickey that specialize in whatever you specialize in, I guess, whatever kind of feel you and you want to make sure they can relate, like if you're in construction, you want to construction. If you're a doctor, I know you do doctors too, I do doctors too.

Jacquelyn Jackson: 31:58

Yeah, the attorney, you want to match that ability together, right?

Mickey Fox: 32:02

Like I said, you want somebody who kind of understands what your business is. You know I mean, look, I don't know anything about bakeries. I can try. You know, I will definitely come in and try to help somebody out, but I'll have to learn a lot, right, but if it's a field that I work in a lot, where I just kind of deal with a lot of this stuff, I'm not an expert.

Mickey Fox: 32:25

I'm not board certified or anything like that. But I've done a lot of it and I've seen a lot of real estate deals. I've seen a lot of membership interest purchases or buybacks and things like that, and so that person's not just going to know kind of how to lay things out, they're going to know what to look for and they might be able to tell you hey, you need to fix this before you get sued.

Jacquelyn Jackson: 32:49

Right, right, exactly.

Mickey Fox: 32:51

That's a big savings right there.

Jacquelyn Jackson: 32:53

It is. It is. They don't see it like that. I know I've had those conversations and clothes and some of the turns. You know we have that talk with the client and us and we're just being real like how's this contract set up? And if it's not set up like it's needed, I'm like it's not going to work for the lenders. But the thing that was kind of shocking the attorneys already knew that they like your lenders not going to accept this.

Mickey Fox: 33:13

One of the things to keep in mind, too, is if your contract won't get passed underwriting, you may be on a hook to pay that money even though you can't get a loan, and so you want to have the proper clauses built into that contract to allow that escape. And you know, there's an awful lot there to try to keep up and there are a lot of different ways to fund things. You can partially fund something. You can do a little bit of a note, you can do a little bit of a bank loan.

Mickey Fox: 33:44

You can do a little bit of a buyback, you can do an earn out. There's just all kinds of ways of structuring things. So, even if you can't grab access to the full amount of capital that you need from a lender like you, there are ways to get them in the back end, so long as the lender because the lender is going to want to stay primary. As long as they stay primary, they don't care, they get their money, they're going to be fine.

Jacquelyn Jackson: 34:06

So long as it's got to have you guys in there, because it really has an add to it. Well, I tell you what. We really do appreciate you being here, but before we leave, I would really like to hear what type of advice or nugget you want to give our listeners for the ending of this show today. What would you like to send out to them? Your last thing to them?

Mickey Fox: 34:25

Don't be afraid to call. I'm a regular person. I put my pants on like most people do, half asleep in the dark. But don't feel like your problem is something you can necessarily push off. We like to kick the can down the road. Talk to an attorney early on. I'll tell you straight. If it's something that I don't think you need to worry about, I'll tell you I don't need the money that bad.

Jacquelyn Jackson: 34:54

Right.

Mickey Fox: 34:55

But if it's something that I think you need to plan for and you need to think about, I'll tell you straight. And whether you use my service or somebody else, it doesn't matter Whether you use my services or somebody else. Really, what I want is that you're protected, that you're taken care of and that you get respect. That's really what it's about. You're going to be able to respect the people you're working with, and I need to respect my clients and they need to respect me, and if we have that, it's an awesome relationship.

Jacquelyn Jackson: 35:26

Awesome and it works really good. So again I want to thank you for coming out again. My pleasure and I want to say something to you guys a little bit on a personal tip, dealing with an attorney. We love Bikki at our office. We love him. I advise you guys to give him a call to see.

Jacquelyn Jackson: 35:43

Even if you're not even thinking there, but if you're in business, going in business, you need to reach out to him. He's the type that you can set up a appointment. He can talk to you and he's straightforward. You know about what you need to do and everything, and he's working really well with a lot of the clients we send this way. So definitely you all need to look at reaching out to him and also to our listeners. If you like what you heard and would like to stay informed about getting money for your business, listen to TDJ Equally Funding Insiders Podcast on all major podcast platforms. If you would like to be a part of the funding Insiders community, where we give out documentation and information to the lending process and more, please sign up at wwwtdjequallylcnet backslash podcast. Until next time, thank you and take care.

Introduction Announcement: 36:57

Thank you.