Signing Contracts

Most our relationships with other people are built on some agreements, promises and duties. If we talk about everyday life and personal agreements, everything is pretty simple – you've reached an accord, and it's a done deal, but if you move to the legal framework, you can't do without contractual arrangements. Signing a contract is a quite specific and challenging moment in any cooperation because everyone tries to protect their own interests and to get more benefits. For many years I have been differentiating between those who read agreements, contracts, proposals or any other documents and those who don't read them at all and just take them on trust. In terms of our business, I can't say exactly which type is better for us.

In the case of work with the first type, we are going to deal with a long approval process of all terms and conditions, proofreading details and negotiating changes. Business customers often have a legal department with several specialists who have little interest in the crux of the matter, but who have to seem serious. If that is so, the negotiation process may be longer that the project itself.

Concerning the second type, everything seems to be perfect, but if any disputable situations arise, they open their eyes wide and ask 'Where is it written?' and start looking for something in the contract. On the whole, the fact that you don't have to agree with them all clauses in the contract for weeks makes up for it.

As for our services and our standard agreement, most clients commonly are not interested in questions of development, payment, and copyright. But they all are interested in sanctions, refund, and indemnity. As opposed to these issues we have included the clause on the client's responsibility for providing us with information on the project in a timely manner. Unless we have received this information, we can suspend the further cooperation and even terminate the contract. For some reason, this clause frightens and surprises our clients at the same time but they have to understand that any company, regardless of its area, has its time plan. And if the information hasn't been provided in a timely fashion, it may put off the work indefinitely or the team may have another scheduled project and have no time for completing the suspended project.

Be ready to bear responsibility unless you want the sanctions to be imposed.

If we look at the process from the outside, the thing is that nobody intends to go to law - the client is interested in the quality product launched on time and the contractor is interested in the timely payment and since the Ukrainian court system leaves a lot to be desired, trials are considered to be a waste of time and money.