Why do you need written contracts?
Well-written business contracts combine virtually all the strategic elements of building a successful business:
- What you will do, how you will do it, and when you will do it
- What the other party will do, how, and when
- How payments are earned and received
- Record of commitments made
- Template for collaboration within your company – communicating to your people how you want business done and fostering efficient operations
- Template for collaboration with the other party – extending your company’s brand and values
- Protection of your company’s “secret sauce”, that is, trade secrets and intellectual property
- Recourse for a party not fulfilling commitments – minimize risk
Handshake deals may seem like a good idea because
- “We’re all friends”
- “We’re all honorable”
- “It is so simple”
Assuming everyone is honorable, a written contract helps everyone remember what was agreed.
And life is not so simple. The pace and complexity of getting things done means that important details can be missed or forgotten if no one has bothered to write them down.
We get to know what you want to accomplish and how you want to do business and then endeavor to make sure your contracts reflect that.
We help negotiate and draft contracts of all sorts, including those for:
- Customers – reflecting how you actually do business
- Partners and partnerships – dealing with myriad issues of a business relationship, such as
- roles
- division of profits
- allowing or prohibiting outside activities
- buy-sell for unexpected developments
- ending the relationship
- Investors, dealing with, among other thing:
- investor expectations and exit strategies
- offering statements
- State and federal securities laws
- Landlords
- Personnel, including
- employee vs. contractor determination
- employer and personnel compliance with legal requirements
- incentives
- Bankers
- Vendors
- and many more
But keep in mind
No contract ever written will keep a dishonest person from harming you or a bad business model from failing. Courts can only help you pick up the pieces when a deal falls apart, and much like “all the king’s men”, can rarely “put Humpty Dumpty together again”. Even if you are bound and determined to go ahead on a seemingly sketchy deal, however, we help you understand the risks.