The Conversations with a Business Attorney podcast is your legal guide to navigating the challenges and opportunities that arise throughout the life cycle of a business. Jeff Large, a start-up business owner, explores topics like operator agreements, employee retention, and the value of protecting your company with Rhoades McKee Attorneys. Don’t get lost, listen and learn.
Tony Pearson, a business attorney at Rhoades McKee, provides examples of the key contracts business owners use when building their companies and relationships.
In This Episode You’ll Learn:
- The types of contracts you will work with when developing your business
- How relationships with customers and vendors shift the view on a contract
- Ways attorneys customize and build contracts to fit your unique needs
The purposes of contracts are diverse between industries, but Tony sets a foundational goal of all contracts as creating clear communication and accountability for businesses.
There are four key relationships Tony talks about, workforce, owners, customers, and vendors. He breaks down the expectations and assumptions involved with each of these relationships, as well as how to design the contracts.
“There’s an old saying that fences make good neighbors. It’s knowing sort of where your boundaries are and everything that can keep you from getting in fights. So I think that having shared understanding can be a key to a good relationship that can continue.” [28:43]
Tony discusses the principles that are applied to the two main relationships with contracts: vendors and customers. He explains how principles, such as prices or supply chains, can be viewed from both sides of the issue. The boundaries Tony describes help to manage risks while remaining fair to both parties.
As Tony talks through examples, he gives entrepreneurs steps to identify the elements that make their businesses unique. Identifying those allows the business owner to create purposeful interrelationships and balance compromise to serve those unique risks.
There’s a lot of information out on the internet, but Tony reminds business owners that each contract is made with that unique business in mind, warning against trying to force another’s pieces to fit your company.
Click here to read the transcript of the full interview for Episode 3.
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