Your business trading terms and conditions set out the agreed terms between you and your customers or clients. You know that they are important, and something that you should have drafted (or at least reviewed) by a Lawyer, but you often put it on your list of things to do one day when you have some spare time, which of course, never happens.
We discuss 6 good reasons why you should have your trading terms and conditions reviewed (and potentially redrafted) by a Business Lawyer as a matter of priority.
1. To cover your relevant risks and ensure they are complete
The first thing that a Business Lawyer will do when it comes to reviewing or drafting your business trading terms and conditions, is look at your business structure and your goods or services offerings. Your trading risks can then be identified, and terms and conditions drafted with those risks in mind to provide you with a level of protection, should a certain risk materialise.
An example of this might be where the delivery of your goods or services depend on your client or customer first providing you with certain information. Terms can then be drafted which allow you to delay the delivery of your goods or services without penalty, until such time as that information has been provided.
We regularly see clients come to us with incomplete trading terms and conditions. Often clients won’t consider the need to include provisions to cover certain situations until a situation arises where they have no terms which govern it. Having your trading terms and conditions reviewed by a Business Lawyer can help you to identify these situations before they arise, and enable you to put terms in place governing them when they do.
2. To identify other issues which may affect your terms
A perfect example of this is where your business utilises other businesses in the performance of your services or delivery of your goods. For example, if your business offers a social media content creation service, you may occasionally contract with an independent photographer to take images for you, which you then intend to provide to your client for their use in a certain way. In doing so, you may then attempt to either license or assign the intellectual property rights in those images to your client. The photographer’s terms and conditions however may state that the photographer retains the intellectual property rights in the images, and does not provide you with the right to use the images in the way in which you state in your trading terms and conditions.
This is a situation which would usually be identified when having your own trading terms and conditions reviewed and you can then take steps to renegotiate terms with the independent photographer to use the images as you intend.
3. To ensure they are enforceable
It goes without saying, but the intention behind going to the effort to put trading terms and conditions in place is to be able to enforce them, should you need to do so in the future.
Having a Business Lawyer review your terms and conditions can help you to identify possible issues with enforcement and make suitable amendments to ensure that you can enforce them if an issue arises.
4. To avoid disputes
Having a clear and complete set of trading terms and conditions can go a long way to avoid disputes arising in the first place.
When the terms are clear, both parties should have a good understanding of their rights and obligations, which in turn should result in less issues arising.
If issues do arise, and the situation in question is clearly dealt with in the terms, the parties can then direct each other to the terms that were originally agreed, and seek to enforce them.
5. To save you time and money
This might sound like a strange one given it requires you to invest both time and money to have your trading terms and conditions reviewed or drafted. Whilst it will be a small investment of time and money up front, this will save you a larger amount of time and money dealing with disputes at a later date.
6. To present a professional image
Having no trading terms and conditions, or terms which are poorly drafted, can result in your clients or customers questioning your professionalism and your skills. If none of the above points concern you, give some thought as to how your trading terms and conditions may be perceived by your clients or customers.
Your lack of appropriate trading terms and conditions may also attract the wrong type of client or customer, which may end up costing you significantly in lost time or product, as well as potential damage to your reputation.
Now that you know why it’s important to invest in professionally drafted trading terms and conditions, its time to take action and be proactive in avoiding unnecessary risk. To set your business up for future success, contact us today on 1300 411 884.
