Читать книгу Canadian Business Contracts Handbook - Nishan Swais - Страница 7

Learning how to write your own business contracts can also help you to better control your business costs.

Consider you are someone who operates a residential roofing business. By writing your own contracts, you can take direct control over your business obligations to your customers. For instance, you could write a contract that says that the customer is responsible for the selection of the roofing tiles. That way, if the tiles are deficient, the customer will not be able to claim that you, the roofer, are at fault and seek a refund from you on that basis.

As well, because a roofing business provides essentially the same service to every customer, it may be possible for the owner to create a “standard form” contract that he can use for all of his customers. This can save both the time and expense of repeated visits to a lawyer, a tax advisor, or other professional.

If you are in a highly specialized industry, say auto parts manufacturing or herbal remedies supply, you will have no choice but to obtain the assistance of a lawyer to help you navigate the complex statutory and regulatory framework governing your industry. In the case of the auto parts manufacturer, this might relate to safety standards. In the case of herbal medicines, correct package labelling might be the issue.

Yet, as you know, lawyers can be expensive, especially for a small- or mid-sized business. However, if you can meet a lawyer halfway by doing the lion’s share of the contract writing — specifically, creating a first draft of a contract and focusing on what you can contribute to its contents — it will allow your lawyer (tax advisor, etc.) to focus on the specialized input he or she must provide, rather than also having him or her spend time on the more general matters you have already included. That can go a long way to further reducing your business costs.