Typically, you invest time negotiating a contract (perhaps with a customer or supplier), sign the document with a fan-fare, go out and get pissed and slap each other on the back a few times in celebration of your new partnership.
Then you put the document in a cupboard and forget about it. When it comes to working with your new partner, pragmatism takes over and you usually solve any on-going problems without reference to your contract.
Then the shit flies in, the relationship goes sour and it’s time to get the contract out.
Remember, a contract is not the sign of your engagement or marriage – it’s the terms of your divorce. That makes your negotiation strategy and what terms need to go into your contract very simple, because you’ve just got to ask yourself what you want if it all goes belly-up. What do you want to keep, gain, give up and collect. And what are you happy to let go? Then write it all down in your own words and get a lawyer to put the legal bits around it.
That's a proper contract.
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