Welcome to the first edition of my exclusive client update, which will help you get more TLC – whether that tips, laughs and confidence, tender loving care, or tiny little contracts. Please tell me what is bugging you this week with contracts, and I will provide pragmatic solutions in my next updates.

Signing on the Dotted Line
Have you ever accidentally bought something online, or forgotten to cancel an automatic renewal, or found yourself stuck with goods you simply don’t want? Making a contract is so easy we can almost do it in our sleep!
But are you making it easy for your clients and suppliers?
I want to make sure you use your simple contracts effectively. It’s no good having a simple set of terms and conditions, subcontract order, or a letter of engagement if you don’t get that document processed properly.
The gold standard is to get it signed to show that your client or supplier has agreed to those terms. In a world faced with the complexity of WFH and lockdowns, please don’t make life complicated for your clients or suppliers. Instead of a paper-based wet-signed contract, you can:
- Send a copy to your contact and ask them to print, sign, scan, and return. This is time-consuming and may not be effective (you could lose the document, or someone could change it after signing).
- Attach your contract as a protected pdf and ask an authorised person to reply to your message and confirm they agree to its terms. This is quicker than the print option.
- Use e-signing such as Adobe forms (the option with our editable pdf contracts) or DocuSign (which requires your own subscription). These are legally accepted in most countries.
If one-third of UK construction projects start without a contract being in place, what processes do you have to make sure you are on the right side of that statistic?
Tip: get your contracts signed before you or your supplier starts work
Read more so you can learn key lessons from other people’s contract failures.