Contracts, Leases, and other Agreements-Look Before You Leap!

As you start and continue in business, you will encounter various papers obligating you to various things from leases to linen supply contracts, or maybe even employee agreements. You should be very careful about signing something with a supplier or landlord, because it will often commit you to a very long term agreement. What often happens is that in the rush to be in business, people sometimes sign agreements that are really detrimental to the long term profits of the business-suppliers that have automatically renewing clauses, automatic price increases, or "cure" provisions that are skewed heavily in the suppliers favor. Unfortunately, it is sometimes difficult to see these things coming when you have so much else to worry about just getting the doors open!

It is strongly suggested that you send all of your business agreements to your attorney to review-they can help analyze what is best for your business, and help you negotiate better terms where needed, or might advise you to find another supplier (and trust us-there are a lot of people willing to do business with you.) Reviewing a contract doesn't have to be expensive and often can be done very efficiently if the attorney is already familiar with your business.

If you are hiring contractors or contract employees, solid agreements as to what is to be done are vital. Milestones, target dates, penalties, and payments, just to name a few, need to be clearly and legally outlined. If your business has sensitive data or information, employee confidentiality agreements are a must. These agreements are very specific to certain situations, and have to be carefully drawn up, and a lawyer would be best.