Most people wait until they are in trouble to hire an attorney. In some cases, it may be too late for an attorney to help or the client may have lost time or options to correct the legal program they are having. My recommendation is to hire an attorney as a proactive measure. If you are a business owner you want to make sure you create contracts with any persons or companies you will conduct business with. This will save you a lot of time and maybe money in the future.  It is always important to know your rights in case someone takes advantage of you. So, you can either hire an attorney to look at your business affairs at the beginning or you can hire an attorney when you have no other choice. The latter will most likely cost you a lot more money.