#172 These are My FAVOURITE Legals to Design
Every now and then on the podcast, we reach out to our community to ask what you would like to hear from us. In today's episode, I address a question from one of our long-time listeners: What are my favourite legal documents to design?
Today I’m diving into one of the aspects of my work that truly sets my soul on fire—drafting client service agreements for small business owners. So join me as I take you through the intricacies of legal agreements and why the client service agreement holds a special place in my heart.
The Joy of Designing Client Service Agreements
You can call it anything you like - a design agreement, styling agreement, client service T's and C's - but client service agreement lays out the terms that a business issues when they're working with their client. Essentially, it's the agreement that a business enters into with its clients, setting the stage for a smooth, professional relationship. I relish the opportunity to dive deeply into a business when crafting these agreements. It's not just about the legal text; it's about creating a document that aligns perfectly with the unique workings of each business. This detailed approach allows us to address pain points and set client expectations - and I just love collaborating with my clients to ensure their business is protected.
The Process and Impact
As I’ve mentioned many times before, my process is very client-centric. I take the time to ask my clients essential questions about their operations—everything from project timelines to payment terms. This helps me ensure that the client service agreement covers all bases and shields the business from potential issues.The real and lasting impact happens when a business owner feels secure, knowing they’re protected legally and they can focus on their core activities.
Implementation and Lasting Success
One of the most important aspects of this process is the implementation of these agreements. It's not enough just to have the document; the business needs to know how to use it effectively. This includes understanding how to incorporate it into their processes and systems. I even go as far as reviewing the communication that will accompany the agreement to clients, ensuring every aspect is finely tuned. The goal is for the client to feel confident and self-sufficient in using these documents, and the privilege of enriching lives through these crafted agreements is central to why I do what I do.
Now that I’ve talked you through what brings me the most joy in my business, I’d love to hear from you about what your favourite part of your business is. And if you’re not quite sure, this might be your little nudge to give it some thought and to lean into doing more of what you love.
Full Transcript:
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Tracey: [00:00:00] Every now and then on the podcast, we go out to our community and we ask the question, What would you like to hear from us? What would you like us to share with you? Is there anything in particular you'd like to know? In today's episode, I'm going to dive in and address one of the questions that came through recently from one of our beautiful long time listeners.
And this listener has asked, what are my favourite legal documents to design? I love this question so much, and I'm really delighted to be able to share with you my absolute hands down favourite and why. So my absolute favourite legal document to draft for a small business [00:01:00] owner is the client service agreement.
So it's the agreement that the business enters into with their clients. You can call it anything you like, a design agreement, styling agreement, client service T's and C's. It doesn't matter what it's called, but it's that agreement or those terms that a business issues when they're working with their client.
And I love this so much because of the opportunity I get to dive so deep into a business when I develop these and because of the magic that these documents can bring to a business when they're done well. That's why I love it. So when I'm working with my clients, and the majority of which are coaches, creatives, and consultants, I like to spend time getting to know the business owner and asking all the questions around how the business operates.
What do you do in your business? I love this part so much. And this is where the business owner gets to share with me all the things they think are important and all the things they want me to know when I'm setting them up for success, developing these [00:02:00] documents, so I hear pain points, I hear concerns, anxieties, someone told me this, I've heard this, do I need this?
I ask the questions around how do you operate? What do you do and how do you do it? Do you work in stages? Do you break your projects up into phases? Is it one fixed fee for the whole thing? How do you manage your workflow? How often do clients want to pause? How often do clients become non responsive?
What's your average turnaround for a project? Those are the sorts of questions that I love to dive in and ask because it helps me do what I do really well. And, of course, money. We want to talk about money. How do you get paid? And often, believe it or not, there's a better way for business owners.
Often I can add value here. And I love to do that in terms of what you can ask for, how you can stage this, when to issue your final invoice, what to do. And then let's talk about [00:03:00] what happens if someone doesn't pay? Do you have the right under your client service agreement to stop doing the work? Do you have the right to put somebody else in the workflow ahead of them to charge them interest, to charge a restart fee, to charge a delay fee, all those sorts of things.
And what I love the most is when clients say to me, gosh, Tracey, I'm already feeling so much better. And that's before I've even started the drafting process, because I have a unique approach to the way I do this, which is Legals by Design. And I talk about Legals by Design and what it actually is. It's my signature approach, and I dive deep into it in episode 169 of the podcast.
So if you haven't listened to that, I'd love it if you did, and I'd love your feedback. What do you think? Let me know. I always love hearing from you. But this is where I take the time to dive in, in my own unique way, to make sure I'm getting everything I need to, and I'm supporting the business owner in every way that I can to achieve really stellar [00:04:00] outcomes.
I love leaning into my client centric approach in my business. I love collaborating with my clients. And this is one of the reasons why I love developing these client service agreements so much. And I do have a way of communicating and breaking down complicated and turning it into simple and making it achievable and all the things by using better communication.
It really is that simple, but it's so important and too often underestimated. So I love bringing that to the table too, to collaborate with a client because developing these legals really is teamwork. It absolutely is. It is a collaboration. I can't do it without the client's input and they can't do it without me.
So it works beautifully. And I love that. Where the real and lasting impact happens is when I've set a client up with their beautifully new branded, tailored, gorgeous client service agreements, and then we spend time on implementation because it's not just, here's your documents, I've changed the name, see you later, good [00:05:00] luck.
That feels awful and yuck, and that's not what I do, but implementation is really important. And if you're a long time listener, you'll hear me talk about that a lot on the podcast, but spending the time understanding, how do your processes and systems work? How are you going to issue this? What's the communication you're going to issue this client agreement with, or these Ts and Cs with?
Can I have a look, please? Send me a dummy one. Let me see it. Let's see the wording. Let's see what this looks like from a client perspective. And the client user experience, very important. Let's see what that looks like. And let's make sure we've got all the things in all the right places, with all the wording, just where it needs to be, saying exactly the right thing.
And this is where the lasting impact is made, because I feel like I'm setting my client up for success, not just by having their beautiful documents tailored for them, but by ensuring that they work and that the client knows what they're doing with them so that it becomes a set and forget in their internal [00:06:00] processes and systems, there's impact right there. Impact for the business because the business is protected, the business owner has peace of mind, knowing that that document is going to be enforceable and can be relied on and impact knowing that the business is setting itself up for success with the clients because it's managing client expectations.
It's setting the bar of what it's going to achieve and then the business owner can go about their business doing the beautiful work that they do and not just meeting those client expectations, but exceeding them. I believe that tailored client agreements can help convert prospects to paying clients for a business.
So they're really, really important. And I feel privileged to be able to play a part in developing those for a business.
You know from listening to this podcast that I've seen what can go wrong in business. I've shared with you so many times, my, my history, my story, my background, and you know that I spent 12 years, a bit more, in litigation and dispute resolution legal [00:07:00] practice. So when it comes to can go wrong in business, there is nothing I haven't seen.
So I know what I'm doing when I'm preparing these client agreements, because I'm safeguarding against all the things that I've seen in those years in practice. And I'm making sure that if my client uses the documents properly in the way that we develop together, that they're not going to need to call a lawyer like me later when things go wrong because we've set them up for success to avoid all of those pitfalls so that those things don't go wrong.
So the client is set up for success, knowing that they're supported by this client service agreement or these business T's and C's, whatever you want to call them. They're supported by them. They know how to use them. They know what's included. They know what it means. So they can go forth and do business and share their magic with the world in a way that's aligned for them and that doesn't leave them exposed legally.
Because this is really important. In my mind, there's nothing better for me [00:08:00] than to be able to enrich lives. And in my business, in the documents I draft and creating these client service agreements, I know I'm enriching the lives of my clients. I know I am that to me sets my soul on fire. That fills my heart with joy.
That's why I do what I do. So that is why the client service agreement is my absolute favourite legal document to draft for my clients. I'd love to hear from you. What's your favourite part in your business? If someone asked you, what's your favourite part, do you know hands down instantly what it is?
I'd love to know, because this is our, why this is what sets our soul on fire. This is why we do what we do. And what I'd like to say is that if you're not quite sure, this might be your little nudge to give some thought to that and to lean into doing more of what you love. It's a privilege. And I'm so grateful.
Thank you for listening to the podcast. I'm ever so grateful for your time. We're spoilt for choice these days with podcasts, and I appreciate that. So [00:09:00] thank you as always for joining me. I'll catch you next time.
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