#20 The legals

If you did the exercise yesterday, you have started to form a picture of who will pay you what rate for what product or services.

Unfortunately, there are rules and regulations around how you offer that service, what you promise, the words you use.

So today you need to take a quick course in Business Law 101. This means that you need to find out something about contracts and terms of trade. 

A contract is an agreement between two or more people to do something. Once upon a time a contract could be done with the shake of hands but as more people forgot what each side committed to we moved to written contracts where it is clearly stated what each side would do.

As the provider, your side of the contract states what you will provide and in what time frame. The contract also states when and how you will get paid for your delivery. And a good contract contains information on what happens if either side does not deliver what was promised. 

A simple contract is always best and this is why many people like dealing with product because what you see is what you get. But, this is not always true and so most countries now have consumer laws that protect against shoddy merchandise or goods what fail to last a reasonable time, consumer laws. You need to find out about your local consumer laws and how they will impact your sales.

Today, you will work out your terms of trade. You will create a simple contract. You don’t need a lawyer to draw this up but if you are dealing with complex situations or high dollar items, you might want to get a lawyer involved.

A contract has your name, address and the name and address of the person you are dealing with. It has what you will provide and a time frame. It agrees a price and a payment timetable and it has some simple consequences should either side breach the conditions stated. It should have a cancellation clause, dates and it must be signed by both parties. 

You are nearly ready to set up your sound business, so keep going. 

And that can be the greatest challenge for any business owner.

Roberta

Simplifier, Presenter, Mentor

This blog is part of the 30 minutes 4 30 days successful business start-up