(612) 206-3701 info@lucerelegal.com

The Top 5 Business Agreements Every Small Business Should Have in Writing

Lucere Legal helps small business owners with business legal agreements

If you are a small business owner and not looking at your business agreements regularly, you are very likely overlooking something important and taking unnecessary risks.  The truth is that most agreements do not need to be written to be valid, but it sure does help when there is a dispute about what the terms of the agreement really were.

Some business agreements are more important than others, and the difference is often because they are with people who are key in your success. Let’s look at some of the relationships in which this would be the case:

Partners – if you are in business with one or more other people without a partnership or shareholder agreement, you are at risk.  Your agreement needs to address what happens if one partner wants to leave, if one partner dies, and if one partner wants to buy the other out and more.

Employees/Independent Contractors – if your business has employees or you hire independent contractors, you will need an agreement that spells out their duties and compensation, as well as the company policies they are expected follow.

Customers – if your business has clients or customers, your relationship with them should be governed by a written contract or by the Terms & Conditions of the product or service they purchase from you.

Vendors it is best practices to have agreements with the vendors who serve your business.  Specifically, if you use creative types, such as graphic designers, web developers, or copywriters, it is imperative that you make sure your agreement has a “work for hire” clause in it. Without it, you don’t actually own the intellectual property your vendor is creating for you.  Call us if you need a vendor agreement.

Website Visitors – if your business has a website, it must also include Terms of Service, Privacy Policy and other disclaimers and disclosures that govern the relationship with visitors to the website.

Every business has at least one of these five – so if you run a business, you need to get on top of your contracts.  And forget the idea that contracts have to be complicated or written in legalese – they don’t!  The best contracts are written in language that the average person can read and understand clearly. That is how we draft the business agreements for our clients.

We can even prepare a standard template that you can use over and over again. But whatever you do, do not overlook the importance of well-drafted, well-considered agreements. You put written business agreements in place because you care about the relationships with the people you are doing business with.

An experienced business attorney can help you create a contract that will precisely define the relationship between you and your partner, your employees, your contractors, your customers and for your website.  Having contracts in place protects your business from potential costly litigation and will deter others from taking advantage of you.

If you’re a small or mid-size business owner, call us at (612) 206-3701 or fill out our contact form today to schedule a business consultation session.

Image courtesy of Jeroen van Oostrom / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Contact us to see how we can help you with Business Agreements

You may also like . . .

Will Your Company Crumble for Words Left Unwritten?

“A verbal agreement isn’t worth the paper it’s written on.” -Unknown If you are a parent, you probably have plenty of experience talking with your child about what they should or should not do, getting their assent, only to find the agreement cast to the wind mere...

The plain-English guide for Minnesota small business owners

When it comes to business, ignorance isn't bliss; ignorance is risk.

There's a handful of legal topics that business owners should be familiar with, at least on a rudimentary level, to reduce the risk of having something horrible come out of left field.

This book is a legal guide to help you put the most common business legal issues on your radar, with enough information for you to be on the alert for when you may need to get some professional advice.

The intention in arming you with this information is so that you can proceed in business confidently and with fewer legal quagmires.

Do you have a cabin?

The first generation that buys a cabin enjoys it to the fullest and it’s a magical place where happy memories are made and families go for some much needed respite. Unfortunately, without thoughtful planning, the chances of the cabin staying a place of happiness and tranquility into successive generations is very, very slim.

If you haven’t done the planning in advance and made it legally binding, the family members (and their ex-spouses and new spouses) will have to work every detail out for themselves. If they can’t, what is likely to happen is a lawsuit called an action for partition that forces everyone to sell their interest. This lawsuit is expensive, and the costs of litigation will come out of the proceeds of the sale of the cabin, so to add insult to injury to those who wanted to keep the cabin but couldn’t afford to buy the others out, they are footing part of the legal bills in the lawsuit against them. Ouch!

It’s no wonder that family members stop speaking for years after the cabin conflict is “resolved.” You can’t make family relationships perfect, but you can take away much of the fuel for the family conflict fire. That’s what cabin planning does, and it has the nice side effect of giving you peace of mind now.

That’s why Kimberly wrote The Minnesota Cabin Planning Guide and Workbook, and you can get a free electronic copy of her book on our cabin planning website, or you can find it in many county libraries in Minnesota, or you can get it on amazon.com.

Make An Appointment>

Join Our Mailing List

Subscribe to our newsletter list to get information and resources helpful to running your business and planning and managing your personal financial affairs delivered right to your inbox.

We don’t spam and won’t share your information with anyone, at anytime, ever.

Check out our podcast

The Small Business Buzz Podcast