Feature TYLA Project

TYLA Provides Help For Small Businesses
By: Erin O'Driscoll

Are you an entrepreneur? If so, how do you bring your ideas to life and create a blueprint for success? TYLA directors Adrienne Clements, Erin O’Driscoll, former director J.P. LeCompte, and committee members Jacob Stasny and Luis Gomar have prepared a Small Business Toolkit to familiarize small business owners with legal issues they may encounter when deciding to open and run a small business. A successful small business is the product of substantial planning and forethought, and this Toolkit was created to guide small business owners through the process and provide insight into some of the questions they should discuss with an attorney even before putting the wheels in motion on a new endeavor. The Toolkit addresses a wide variety of topics such as: creating a business plan; getting financing; choosing the right business entity to form an enterprise; providing an overview of employment law and applicable taxes; protecting ideas and goodwill; and forming strategic alliances to set up a business owner for success. Committee member Alfonso Kennard Jr. is currently in the process of translating the pamphlet into Spanish.

The Toolkits will be distributed to students at the Urban Business Initiative’s small business class in the Houston area this January and are available at the University of Houston Small Business Development Center. Director Erin O’Driscoll will present the Toolkit at the Greater Houston Minority Procurement Forum this winter, and the TYLA committee is contacting local chambers of commerce and business groups to distribute the materials across Texas. If you or your local bar would like for TYLA to present this project to a venue near you, go to our website at www.tyla.org and contact us. You can view the Toolkit, at the below link:
http://www.tyla.org/tyla/index.cfm/tyla/index.cfm/resources/general-public/consumer-issues1/.