Prevent your Company Going From First to Worst

Quick: Think of your dream client, the one that would not only make this year, but the next five years as you grow together.

Even Quicker: Think how it could change from best to worst in the blink of an eye.

One of my clients had their business dream come true.

It was a struggling company. It landed a huge contract -- $6,000 a month for 12 months for services. They signed the contract, bought a bunch of tools to fulfill the contract, and hired a new employee to do the work.

Six weeks in, the customer got cold feet and cancelled the contract.

My client called in a tizzy.

Upon review, it turns out the contract was really a Statement of Work, that outlined the work, the timelines, the deliverables and the payments. It didn’t talk about termination at all. Technically, that meant the client couldn’t cancel, but they did.

We negotiated an end to the contract.

Then I got to work drafting their standard terms and conditions. We assessed what went wrong and how to protect them going forward. Now there is a penalty for early termination.

What would take you from first to worst? How can we protect you?