We don’t need a contract, we trust each other

Ok, this is a bit of a cheat. How often do you skip the contract part because you trust each other and the whole thing isn’t that complex anyway? Perhaps you prepare a trust MOU to cover the contract side of things but why bother with a contract prepared by a lawyer? Simple reason: without a decent contract you will have far too much uncertainty about far too many critical issues.

You will almost certainly have questions about aspects of the relationship you are unclear on or didn’t consider in the first place. You may have a disagreement over who said what in that bar two years ago and what happened to that piece of paper anyway? You may even part ways with your business partner and have to figure out how to manage that assets, liabilities and customers.

Contracts do more than describe the relationship’s highlights. They also establish processes and frameworks that support and guide many aspects of the relationship using all those “boilerplate” clauses no-one pays much attention to and which become pretty interesting when you need them. Don’t skimp on that stuff, don’t settle for the MOU (do you know what that is, really?) because it won’t save you days and weeks of anxiety and stress because of all the uncertainty you find yourself sitting with.