When I started this exclusive client newsletter I promised to give you more TLC – sometimes I have focused on tricky legal clauses, or tiny little contracts. But this edition provides tips, a laugh and confidence.
Tips Leading to Confidence
As my clients, you know the value of simpler contracts – in reducing admin time, minimising quibbling, managing expectations, safeguarding your business, speeding up the process of finalising a deal, enhancing trust, avoiding disputes and so on. Each of your contracts should help you avoid misunderstandings (eg by using accurate terms) and help with your project.
But that doesn’t mean you are totally in control of all the contracts your business has to sign. Your clients or suppliers can try and sneak in their own terms and conditions. You should create a simple process for objectively reviewing that contract – a good place to start is with my STAR checklist and its Guide.
Before you can properly review a contract, you’ll need to read and understand it. If you need confidence in translating legal terms, you can either grab a copy of one of my books, search my blog, or check out this selection of exclusive video explanations:
- how do you define quality?
- what is fitness for purpose?
- what does lost profits refer to?
- what is an entire agreement clause?
- how do you set liquidated damages?
- should you use liquidated damages in subcontracts?
- what is practical completion?
- what are patent and latent defects?
You might also appreciate a quick reminder of how to sign a contract as a deed.
Tip: for contract confidence, keep asking questions– don’t be bullied into signing what you don’t understand
If there are any questions which aren’t answered here and that keep you awake at night, just ask and I will cover them in a future edition. If it’s big enough to worry you, I’ve probably been asked it before by a client or in a training event. For example, during a couple of recent webinars, I was grilled on the link between insurance and limits on liability, virtual signing, and creating subcontracts (the subject of my next book).
I hope you never need to think about whether you can get out of a bad contract but I know some great disputes lawyers if you need them!