048 Your Legal Fairy Godmother Is Here Let's Talk Contracts

Send me a Text MessageYour Legal Fairy Godmother If you have a contract you need to listen if you don't have a contract you definitely need to listen.Heather Stanford Gould has been dubbed the Legal Fairy Godmother to the wedding industry. She has two businesses - Stanford Gould and Stanford Gould Online – and she helps you lovely creative geniuses with all the legal contractual and compliance advice that you don’t know where to start with.Client contracts, supplier agreements, freelancer contracts, insurance and liability issues, GDPR – all that tedious but crucial stuff you know you need for your wedding business.Contracts aren't SexyHeather starts by explaining the #yourlegalfairygodmother and how that came about. Contracts aren't sexy, that aren't instagram worth and people get scared and in feeling that way avoid dealing with them. However, by creating the hashtag it opened up contracts to becoming a little more accessible for a creative audience. Making it a little more creative like the industry rather than trying to make the industry more like a law firm.So the hashtag was born to meet the industry where we are at and make the subject a little less scary looking.Your Legal Fairy Godmother went out on her ownHaving worked as a dispute resolution lawyer Heather decided she wanted a change and initially set Stanford Gould Ltd up with the aim of helping small businesses with their contractual requirements. She wanted to make this very important STUFF accessible not only from a jargon perspective but also from a price point perspective. After working with a commercial sports photographer she was recommended to a wedding photographer and the rest, as they say, is history. She saw more and more wedding professionals and so saw a need within the wedding niche and decided to dedicate her talents and abilities to helping wedding suppliers.What are the biggest contract mistakes people makeThere are huge differences between the contracts that have crossed the doors of Stanford Gould. From 3 sentences on the back of an invoice which is probably the worst. Not only is 3 lines inadequate but sending it on your invoice is too late you might as well not have bothered. At the other end you get the this is how we are going to work this is what we are going to do which can be impenetrable to a client. Often there are three significant gaps in contracts whatever the length:Understandability ~ The user-friendliness of it. 'Sounding' like a lawyer doesn't make a solid contract. Conflicting information ~ When people copy and paste from different places they end up creating conflicts e.g have payment requirements and cancellation clauses that in reality means you aren't holding the right amount of the clients' money to cover the cancellation at that time stated in the contract, meaning you are highly unlikely to recover that money. Liability Clauses ~ Almost universally this is the bit missing from most contracts and these are the bits that protect your business if things go 'tits up.' They should be legally fair, follow the rules and protect you the supplier, your house, car, pension your assets. THIS IS NO.1 Priority in your contract.For more listen into the podcast where Heather gives her top three contract tips or head over to the website to read more https://bit.ly/legalfgFREE 3 Part Audio - Access Here www.donnaeade.comSupport the showPodcast Equipment Recommendations MY KITFEA Create Simple all-in-one web, CRM, email systemFor graphics CanvaJoin the Pod Squad in the FB GroupMy MIC ACTION PODCAST - here is a link to SpotifyRead from My Book Shelf & My Guests Book Shelf Want to Guest? Apply here >>FORMEdited and produced by Donna EadeThank you for your support:)Until next week, Bye for Now XoX