Owning a business built around alcohol must have seemed a good idea at the time. There is certainly money to be made, and some people are just great building a business based on customer camaraderie and good cheer. Maybe alcohol is the perfect pairing for your restaurant menu, or maybe you see profit potential in a retail store. How a liquor licensing attorney can save your startup business?
Here’s to you!
Whether you’re planning a bar, pop-up bar, restaurant, private club, or retails sales, here are 5 good reasons you need a liquor licensing attorney from the beginning:
- First-aid: It ain’t easy to open and run an alcohol-based business. Every set-up requires a focused approach. Depending on the city, county, and state of your operation, there might be a score of different permits and licenses to choose from.
- Planning: There’s a lot more to opening an alcohol-based business than hanging your sign out. You are not likely to satisfy lenders or investors without a seriously thought out and detailed business plan. If alcohol is part of that plan, their support will be demanding, regarding permitting, personnel, and bonding. The average business owner doesn’t have a grasp on the detail required.
- Time: If planning takes time, so will the continuing operation. In a business subject to monitoring by federal, state, and local authorities, you need to give licensing and its demands a lot of time. And, because time takes you away from your operation,
- Liability: Liquor licensing is a government’s attempt to vet those who would enter a risky enterprise. Liquor can present a health risk to consumers. It needs to be in the hands of trained and responsible servers. Abuse can put the safety of the general public at risk. And, as a source of taxes, controls have to be practiced and sustained.
- Expertise: Liquor licensing law is a specialty. Confusing laws and expectations, complex forms and procedures, everything about the legal process works better, more efficiently and effectively with expert advice.
![Liquor bottles](https://i0.wp.com/www.smbceo.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/liquor.jpg?resize=500%2C340&ssl=1)
Image Courtesy of refinedguy.com
Why the Liquor Licensing attorney?
Business attorneys, in general, are educated to manage contracts and licensing. However, a liquor attorney save you precious business time and money by expediting your case.
The experienced liquor licensing attorney are best positioned to captain your business ship.
- They know the process and how to navigate the storms and swells presented by licensing bureaucracy.
- Forms and process are their process; it’s what they do.
- ?They know your jurisdiction and its specific mandates, whether you are local or out of state.
- When time is your enemy, they cut through tape and jump hurdles to open and maintain your business.
- They know what you and your business plan need before you do and how to present it effectively to your investors, partners, and lenders.
There’s profit in preparation
Consider only a short list of concerns that surround a liquor-based business:
- Administrative hearings, protest and appeal
- Legal compliance and registered agent services
- Purchase and sales of a business
- Dram shop and liquor liability
- Litigation defense
- Comptroller Audit assistance and defense
- Internal Revenue Service audits and criminal defense
- Insurance and bonding advice
- Insurance defense representation
- Tax Code violation defense
- Beverage Code violation defense
Starting and running a business that makes liquor an attraction presents challenges and risks best governed, supported, and defended by experts in liquor law licensing.