Get It In Writing

My favorite business coach -- my cleaning lady Kelli of Kelli's Cleaning Angels -- is here today and today's nugget of wisdom is about contracts.

Her business is both home cleaning and corporate cleaning. She was telling the tale of a corporate client who didn't actually bother to read her contract (which is one page long) and tried to back out of a $10,000 bill (and ongoing agreement). Kelli had laid out the cost clearly in the contract but they were still shocked by the cost and wanted to terminate the contract.

Sadly, the contract they'd signed was for four years. Ooops!

Now she could have gone all wimpy at this point -- fearful of the power of a "corporation" over a small business like hers -- but she didn't. She stood her ground and pointed to the contract and they paid up.

Why? Because she knows she IS a business owner! (Shout out to all my former students..)

Her contracts are simple. They spell out what she will deliver, how often, and for how much money. They also stipulate what she will do to correct a sub-standard cleaning job. Finally, it spells out how either party can terminate the contract. Kelli says her contract is less than a page long and I'm willing to bet it's written in plain English.

She says she has insisted on contracts with all her corporate clients for a long time now. In a conflict, handshake agreements usually come down to "I said..." and "no you didn't, you said...", which can never be resolved. Though she did say that one corporate client she had a verbal agreement with tried to reneg on payment but backed down when she mentioned she'd talked to her lawyer (she hadn't but they didn't know that!).

As MTs, we are often very uncomfortable with contracts. We don't fully understand them and a lot of MTs I know are overwhelmed and baffled by legal language. We're pretty sure someone is going to use it against us sooner or later.

Contracts are simply the details of an agreement between two parties, usually for the purpose of business dealings. They exist to (1) make sure you both understand what you're agreeing to and (2) give you a point of reference if you're ever in disagreement.

You can also write contracts in plain language (think of them as letters of agreement if that makes you more comfortable). If both parties are comfortable with that, it can work. Even in court. If your agreement shows a clear intent to establish a normal business relationship, a court will take that into consideration.

Are you better off with a lawyer drafting your contracts? I think I would if I was (1) dealing with very large amounts of money or (2) not entirely confident about my working relationship with the other side of the contract but that's simply my opinion. You should never take my word as the final authority on legal matters!

If you are doing business with another business on an on-going basis, I strongly recommend getting the details down in writing. Make sure you both understand what you're agreeing to, in detail, and make sure you both have a neutral point of reference if you're ever in disagreement (and the odds are, if you work together long enough, you will be in disagreement at some point. We're all only human.).

Call it a contract. Call it a letter of understanding. Call it a document of agreement. Call it anything you want but just make sure you get it in writing.