How Can Contract Billing Help my Business

Archive for the ‘Contract Liability Business’ Category

There are some methods you can develop in order to help you to achieve your goals, and I have a listed a few below as pointers to success:

You do not need for me to tell you how competitive this business is, you will always be competing against others for the best candidates and you will need to move quickly to ensure you find the best candidates and keep them once you have found them. A new vacancy will be out there for all to see and you need to move quickly to ensure you get the pick of the crop.Always post up jobs of boards as soon as you hear about them.

After you have secured your candidate keep in close contact, and this means after they have started the job also. Many a new candidate has felt dissatisfied in a new role and decided to jump ship in the first few weeks, this could lose you your fee if the client refuses to pay up. A call early on could save you a lot of problems later, if your candidate doesn’t seem too happy a little encouragement and advice in terms of ‘giving the new role a good try’ could save you a lot of money and time.Always make sure that your candidate has realistic expectations about the salary they are likely to achieve, unrealistic expectations can lead to wasted time and may lose you both the candidate and even the job.

Always keep good records of the progress of your interview/placement, this starts with ensuring that you always put everything in writing, this way you have evidence if needed later on. Verbal conservations can often be misunderstood, times and places can be mistaken and such a mistake could be the cause of a lost placement. Make sure you are aware of new vacancies, this way you are in the best position to make your move quickly, before the competition has a chance.

There will always be another agency out there waiting to pick up the best candidates so don’t get left behind, Lost opportunities mean lost fees, and this you cannot afford.Always confirm details of meetings, times and venue the day before an interview is to take place, this way if you candidate decides to pull out you at least have some chance to make your apologies in advance, if you are lucky you may even be able to find another candidate in time.

Make sure you keep a good relationship with your client, and this means ensuring your client is of high quality and has the right experience and qualifications for the job in question.The business of recruitment consultancy is no easy route to take, but if it is your chosen path make sure you walk it well, keep you eye on the ball and don’t let the competition get in first.

By: Seb Bult

Technorati Tags: finance recruitment, recruitment jobs, recruitment services

Unless you happen to be planning to establish a charitable, non-profit organization of some type, the main reason why you may be interested in starting a business is to make a living or build wealth from the endeavor. For many people, the desire to “be your own boss” and escape from the shackles of traditional employment is part of the motivation, but the bottom line usually comes down to wanting some form of business financial success so that you are not living from paycheck to paycheck.

One of the most important things that you will do in your quest to enjoy business related financial success is to have a clear, detailed, and realistic business plan that will lay out a map for your progress in your new business. A well-done business plan will include financial projections, working capital management objectives, cash flows analysis, industry and competition analysis, a profile to target customers or a specific audience, and an outline of organizational and asset management ideas.

One of the common errors that a lot of new business people make, which contributes greatly to the high failure rate of new businesses, is not having a clear and complete picture of the marketplace in which they plan to compete. Spending some advance time in analyzing the industry and collecting enough pertinent information will give the entrepreneur a much better idea of what is needed in order to forge business financial success in a given field.

In most cases, when someone is looking to start a new business, they will need some type of start up, working capital to see them through until the business starts to make enough money to be self-sustaining, as well as to be able to pay out salaries. Because a new business has no track record of any kind and no net assets or financial statements to submit for a loan, the only business financial information that the lenders will be able to evaluate is the entrepreneur’s personal credit and total assets.

Even if you have excellent credit and current assets that you can borrow against in order to take out a loan to get your business started, a loan officer will still require a detailed business plan from you. Without a thorough business plan, your aspirations are nothing more than wishful thinking and your loan application won’t get very far in the process.

The lenders will want you to prove to them that you have a knowledgeable understanding of the industry you wish to enter, as well as sufficient management knowledge to be able to successfully take your business from inception, through the growth phases and into stability.

When an entrepreneur is heavily engaged in establishing and growing their own business, there is no doubt that it becomes a very personal endeavor. But often this perspective is just “too close” to be able to make important decisions that can lead to business financial success. However, when someone has taken the time to research and map out a clear and detailed business plan, this can help to overcome the challenges.

Author: Mike Selvon 

Technorati Tags: business marketing plan, business planning, how to write a business plan

The contract is the foundation of doing business. Does that sound too formal to you? Is a handshake agreement good enough for many? Well, even though it may not be as air tight as, say, a contractor agreement, a handshake deal is still a contract. The moment two people agree to terms when it comes to the exchange of goods and services for a price, they have entered into a legal contract. It’s why knowledge of contracts and the issues involved should be important to all people in business, and why knowing the difference between a good and bad contract can protect your interests.

In fact, knowing more about contracts is like knowing more about life and history in general. Contract law is certainly not the creation of a few thoughtful individuals, nor is it part of any kind of grand design. Indeed, contract law has much of its roots in the common law foundation of American society.

That is, contract law is somewhat a textbook example of how common law developed in Britain and the United States. People engage in business transactions. Eventually, some of these become sources of disputes between various parties. Some laws already on the books may cover the dispute. Very often, they don’t. So that’s where a court needs to step in to cover so-called tricky cases and establish new laws. These are called precedents, which are then carried over to similar cases in the future.

It’s the establishment of these precedents alongside legislated law that forms the foundation of common law in general, and contract law specifically. Although it’s certainly not necessary to do extensive research in case law to gain a better understanding of things like legal contracts and the contractor agreement; contacting those specialists who do might be wise. They’re called lawyers. Alternatively, just knowing that contract law isn’t always written in stone should perhaps make it more imperative that good contracts can cover your interests in as many situations as possible.

It is the desire to avoid grey areas and matters of interpretation that creates the need to form contracts to protect your interests. In other words, a handshake can get you in trouble, since the specifics of such a contract can be a matter open to interpretation. What is less open to interpretation is a legal contract or contractor agreement that specifically states the obligations of all parties of a contract. The more the contract clearly outlines these obligations, the better off all parties will be, especially if there ends up being a dispute.

It’s not just the simple exchange of goods and services for a fee that are subject to contractual arrangements, of course. There are numerous components of business and related activities that come under the umbrella of contracts.

If you want to outsource your activities to someone else, that’s a contract. You hire people for a period of time, that’s a contract. You hire people to fix something in your office, that’s a contract. Almost any decision to form an arrangement with someone else, especially when money is involved, can form the basis of a contractual arrangement carrying with it all the duties and obligations of a legal contract.

Another way of putting it is this: If you’re doing business with anyone to any degree, there’s a contract involved there somewhere. And if it could potentially impact you and your business, you better get it down on paper. Some contracts may not need to be as formal as a contractor agreement, but the more specific a legal contract it is, the better position you can be in to protect your interests and that of your business.

Indeed, laying out as much specificity in the contract, while keeping it simple, goes a long way towards creating the good legal contract. It should lay out things like the parties obligated to the contract, the financial arrangements agreed upon, what circumstances would lead to the termination of the contract, what mechanisms can be used to resolve disputes, and what jurisdiction applies to the terms of the contract. The more that’s outlined in the contract, while making it easy to understand for all parties involved, the less of a chance that a court will even be needed to sort it all out.

After all, one of the benefits of a good legal contract is that it discourages people to resort to the courts to try and settle disputes in their favor. If most applicable terms are laid out in a good contract, the temptation to try and score through a lawsuit will be mitigated. No one wants to waste time and resources disputing an air tight contract. If the terms are laid out properly, and each party knows specifically what their obligations are, then further difficulties down the road are that much more unlikely.

Perhaps nowhere is this more true than with respect to the contractor agreement. Companies are hired to do projects of all sorts for all kinds of clients. While it’s great to answer the phone, learn that someone wants to contract for your services, and pay you a lot to do it, it really doesn’t hurt if you already have prepared a contractor agreement that covers both your interests before getting started. It lets the client know what kind of people they’re hiring, while also protecting you from somebody who plays loose with the notion of what a business contract is.

Author:  James Cochran 

Technorati Tags: contract law, employment contract, letter agreement, rules agreement

Email programs make an email signature that’s mechanically placed at the conclusion of your electronic mail. It generally gives your name, title, business address and supplementary personal or business related information. The latest legal buzz over email signatures is whether those signatures produce a binding legal contract when you’re negotiating terms with another person or company by electronic mail.

In the United States, federal and state law allow for the enforceability of electronic signatures. For transactions affecting interstate commerce, a federal statute called the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act (E-SIGN), 15 U.S.C. 7001 et seq. protects such dealings. Under this legislative act, a signature can’t be denied legal validity or enforcement only because it is in electronic form. 15 U.S.C. 7001(a)(1). The Act defines an electronic signature as an electronic sound, symbol, or process, attached to or logically connected with a contract or other record and executed or adopted by a person with the intent to sign the record. 15 U.S.C. 7006(5). The Act establishes no additional demands for electronic signatures. The Act, therefore, is quite broad and allows a generous mixture of signatures and identifiers to be counted a signature.

Additionally, most states have passed the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA). UETA allows for the enforceability of electronic signatures once the parties to a transaction have decided to carry on dealings by electronic means. UETA 5(b). The parties’ arrangement to transact electronic dealings is verified from the context and surrounding circumstances, including the parties’ demeanor. Id. After the parties’ intent is evidenced, UETA provides that electronic signatures are enforceable. There are no specific requirements regulating the form of an electronic signature. The UETA defines electronic signature as an electronic sound, symbol, or process attached to or logically associated with a record and executed or adopted by a person with the intent to sign the record UETA 2(8).

The topic of an email signature creating a binding contract has been dealt with in several court opinions. In those opinions, the courts have consistently held that email signature is comparable to a manual signature. It produces a binding contractual responsibility on the the person signing the email. When there’s no conflict of opinion as to the writer and authenticity of the email, the email is presumed signed for the purpose of making an enforceable contract.

As a practical matter, when you’re discussing terms of any agreement by email, be aware that what you write in that email may in some situations produce a valid contract. To get around the inference that your signature in an email is making a contract, you should add a disclaimer to your email signature. Something like the following statement should be adequate.

“Unless expressly stated in this email, nothing in this message should be regarded as a digital or electronic signature or writing.”

Author: Harvey Cox

Technorati Tags: email template, sales contracts, signature for email

The case of Evans v Cherrytree Finance Ltd [2008] concerned unfair contract terms in relation to a loan agreement. The defendant company in this case ran a business which involved lending money to non-status, high risk borrowers on commercial premises.

The claimant and his wife owned a property. The property was used for their antiques business in which they were partners. In 1993, part of the property was converted into residential accommodation. From that point on the claimant and his family lived in the residential part of the property (”the Residential Accommodation”).

The Residential Accommodation and the business premises had separate addresses. Unfortunately, in 1999, the claimant’s wife initiated divorce proceedings and the partnership was dissolved. During the course of the divorce, the claimant’s wife secured an order for the property to be sold.

Understandably, the claimant was anxious to prevent the sale. The claimant was granted four weeks in order to raise 150,000, which would facilitate the transfer of his wife’s interest in the property to the claimant.

In order to pay the settlement, the claimant made an application to the defendant for a loan of 105,000. The application form for the loan was headed with the words “Commercial Loan”. The claimant gave his address as the Residential Accommodation and gave the address of the business premises as the property against which the loan would be secured. The claimant also stated on the application form that the purpose of the loan was to:

- Repay an existing mortgage; and

- To pay his ex-wife the balance due under his divorce settlement.

The claimant soon defaulted on the loan repayments. Accordingly, in due course the property was sold by the defendant. The defendant realised the amount due under the loan, which also included a penalty fee.

The claimant subsequently brought proceedings against the defendant. He claimed that he was in effect not bound by the terms imposing the penalty because they were unfair. The issue that arose to be determined by the court was whether the claimant was a ‘consumer’ for the purposes of Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 (”the Regulations”).

The claimant was deemed a ‘consumer’ for the purposes of the Regulations with regards to the loan made to him by the defendant. The judge was of the opinion that the claimant had not been borrowing for the purposes of his business, but for a purpose existing outside of his trade, business or profession. That purpose being to buy out his wife in divorce proceedings.

Furthermore, it was held that the loan was essentially for personal purposes to enable him to have a place to live as well as work. Accordingly, the judge found that the Regulations did apply to the contract. This meant that the condition which imposed the penalty on the claimant was unfair.

The defendant appealed against the decision.

The claimant argued that the main reasons he took out the loan had not been related to his business, but that it was needed in order for him to establish himself. The defendant submitted that the claimant’s purpose had never been revealed to the defendant. The defendant argued that it had not been told that the claimant and his wife had lived at the property or that the loan was needed to provide the claimant with a place to live.

The appeal was dismissed.

It was held that in the circumstances of the case, the judge had been perfectly entitled to conclude that the loan was for a purpose outside the claimant’s business or trade.

When considered objectively, it was decided that although the loan enabled the claimant to continue his livelihood, it was not the sole purpose of the loan. The court was unaware of the matters that had been taken into account when reaching the divorce settlement.

It was decided that the statement on the application that the other purpose of the loan was to pay off a mortgage was equivocal. Furthermore, the court was of the opinion that the defendant could have deduced from the information it had been provided by the claimant that the claimant had been living as well as working in the property.

Author: Rosanna Cooper 

Technorati Tags: business for sale, business law, commercial property