Business Life Cycle: Contracts and Business Disputes

You’ve set up your business, and you’re excited about what’s to come. However, even after registering your business name and hiring employees, there’s still a lot you have to do before you’ve created a successful business. The next step in your journey will be filled with handling contracts and business disputes.

To make sure that you are on the path to maintaining a successful business, you need experienced professionals on your side. We can handle any legal representation you may need, and we can also connect you with people that you can forge strategic business relationships with. Whether you have an issue that requires our legal intervention or not, we have the capacity to help you and your business. 

Drafting Contracts

Businesses rely on the terms of their contracts. From agreements with vendors to employment contracts, having this assent in writing is crucial. What is also critical to your success is having an experienced professional draft your contracts and look over anything that requires your signature to make sure that things are done with your best interests in mind.

What Kind of Contracts Do I Need?

Depending on your business type, you may need to adopt different types of contracts. Here are some general examples of contracts you may need to have written up:

Employment Contracts

There are different types of employment contracts:

• General:

  To make sure that both you and your employees are properly taken care of, a contract outlining the employee’s terms of employment is needed. This will include the salary, job duration, and any other necessary facets of the employment.

• Confidentiality:
  Depending on your business, you may need to have your employees sign a confidentiality agreement stating that they will not share confidential information they may come in contact with. 

• Reciprocal Nondisclosure:
  Similar to a confidentiality agreement, a reciprocal nondisclosure agreement protects confidential information. The difference is that this is more tailored toward relationships that businesses forge with people they negotiate with (such as a vendor that is hired by your company) in order to keep trade secrets safe.

General Business Contracts

These are contracts that are made to maintain your business under your vision. 

• Partnership Agreement:
  Partnerships are very important if you choose to create one because the business will be governed under your guidance rather than the general rules that the Georgia Uniform Partnership Act provides. In this agreement, you are able to include any terms of the partnership that you want to be put in place. This means that you can decide how much each partner will contribute, where the profits/losses will be allocated, and even how the partnership will end. 

• Promissory Note:
  A promissory note is a signed agreement stating that there is a promise to pay a certain amount of money on a specific date.

 Other Contracts

• Warranty:
  I’m sure you’ve come in contact with warranties before- from televisions to phones- they are a very common contract between the purchaser and producer that gives some sort of promise. 

• Bill of Sale:
  A bill of sale is just like a receipt. It is used when the owner of goods transfers ownership of those goods to someone else.

When is a Contract Binding?

To make a contract binding, there are many things that must be fulfilled. There must be an offer, acceptance, mutual assent, consideration, capacity, and legality. You may understand what the offer, acceptance, and legality elements mean, but what about the others?

• The “mutual assent” is also referred to as “the meeting of the minds”. Essentially, both parties must fully understand the agreement and assent to it.

• Consideration means that the parties are adequately provided for in the contract. Basically, the parties promise to give each other something in exchange for the terms of the contract. For example, Party A and Party B are in the process of exchanging money for a bike. Let’s say A is buying the bike from B, so A will receive the bike and B will get the money. As far as consideration goes, A’s consideration would be the money they will give to B, and B’s consideration will be the bike they will give A.

• Capacity is just the parties’ ability to understand and consent to the contract.

Business Disputes

As your journey continues, there may be some bumps in the road in the form of disagreements. Whether they are disputes within your business (between you and your employees/partners/etc.) or between you and outside people (such as vendors, businesses you’ve negotiated with, etc.), we know how to handle them. Let’s look at some ways that disputes arise. 

Contracts and Business Disputes

Many business disputes arise due to issues with contracts. A lot of issues that result in business disputes come from contract breaches. When a person goes against their contractual obligations, it poses a major issue for the business. This is why it is imperative to have your obligations laid out in writing and worded in a very specific way. If there are ambiguous terms, that leaves room for a possible misunderstanding in the contract- which we do not want. That’s why you need to have a lawyer that knows how to deal with contracts and business disputes. 

Our experienced team can draft contracts for you and make sure that you do not sign anything that would be detrimental to you/your business. We can prevent these kinds of disputes from arising. If you are already in the midst of a dispute, we can help with that too. 

Other Business Disputes

There are disputes that may come from many other problems. Whether it’s a disagreement about hiring decisions or financial issues, you need to have someone on your side. No matter the cause of the dispute, Wadkins & Wallace, P.C. can help.

Our Contracts and Business Disputes Attorney

At Wadkins & Wallace, we want to be a part of making your business successful. We know how to help you, and we want to. Contact us by calling us at (706) 221-9451 or filling out this online form.