Getting Things Right With Business To Business Contracts

Your small business probably enters into more contracts than you think. Every time you buy something, or sell something, you are entering into a contract. It doesn’t matter if you have, or your client has, to sign something or not.

However, every single time you enter into a contract, it’s unlikely you can afford to draft in a lawyer. This is perfectly normal – companies usually only involve lawyers in contracts when they are doing something that their standard terms and conditions aren’t suitable for.

It is worthwhile speaking to your lawyer about how your small business could use standard terms and conditions to govern the relationships you have with your clients. That way you’ll be better equipped to handle any unexpected problems that may arise in the future.

As a small business owner, knowing the basics of contract law is vital to understanding what is binding and what is not. However, when you are not sure about anything, it is usually best to first consult with your lawyer who has had experience in dealing with similar issues in the past. Your accountant may also be able to help with some small business legal issues.

When Do You Know A Contract Has Been Formed?

When one side makes an offer and the other side accepts without qualification a contract is formed. This can be done in writing, through the signing of a contract, over the telephone, in an email, or in person. Therefore, your company doesn’t have to start the work, or your client does not have to pay you before a contract is formed. They are bound to pay you, and you are bound to do work from them, from the moment the offer and acceptance takes place. If both parties agree, however, the contract can usually be cancelled.

How Do I Make My Standard Terms Apply?

If you have standard terms and conditions of trade, that you want to be included in how the courts will interpret your contract, then it’s not simply enough to have them. Your client needs to know about them and, in most cases, accept them too.

If your sales process does not allow for your client to review the terms and conditions before you close a sale, then make sure your sales agent covers the main points of the contract when speaking to the client. Then send a copy of your standard terms out to the client directly after you close the sale, and on the back of all invoices from there.

What If The Company Promises Something And Their Terms and Conditions Don’t?

If you’re buying something from a company, and they tell you something over the telephone or in person then it will usually be fine. In legal theory, it should form part of your agreement. That is, unless the terms and conditions contain a clause limiting the agreement to what is said in the agreement. However, it is best practise to write, or send an email, to the company and clarify the points discussed in your conversation and ensure the company’s agent responds accepting that they agree with everything that you have stated.

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Balancing Work and Life

There have been so many books and articles written about the office culture - topics like ‘how to stay productive at work’, ‘how to be your own boss’, and ‘stress management’ are three of the more common topics that traditionally pop up. Another topics that is being addressed as well is the whole concept of office culture. In the same way that a school has an academic curriculum and a hidden curriculum that defines the environment, student interactions and the psyche, an office also possesses a corporate culture that is defined not by an employee’s handbook but by the habits formed during office interactions. From small things such as answering the phone to bigger things like rapport between colleagues and superiors, and even the physical working environment contribute to this.

Contrary to the belief that one should leave all personal baggage behind the office door and pick them up after work hours, the economics of human interaction in the office is so varied and unpredictable that personal problems can and will affect your productivity.

Creating that perfect office environment has its physical as well as emotional requirements. It takes more than just littering a room with flowers and expecting that everything will be okay. Although that helps too: it has been proven that a bit of greenery in the office helps the mind relax. Which is why many modern offices set aside space for flowers and plants, have large windows for viewing the scenic panorama. More important than the physical atmosphere is the general atmosphere developed through the rapport of colleagues.

A balance between working and living draws a very thin line. In truth, your colleagues at work can very well be your second family because next to your home, these are the people you spend the most time with. Discussing problems with friends at work not only de-stresses but also helps build an environment of rapport and trust. There is nothing wrong with showing that you care in times of need. A friendly gesture of a free lunch, flowers or small tokens are definitely appreciated.

Employees want to feel that they are accepted and valued. They want to be well compensated. They want to know that they are safe at work. They want to feel that they are growing professionally. And when they’re burned out, they need time to recuperate - even within the office. This way, staying in the office can be more natural and enjoyable.

So in effect, apart from their usual work delivery, employees need time to stop and smell the flowers in the office space. To get the most out of your employees, sometimes you need to make them work less and enjoy more.

This article is authored by Timothy Spencer for Island Rose - Flower Delivery Philippines. We hope you enjoyed this article and encourage you to visit our website. For more informative articles like this, visit the Philippine Florist blog pages.

Turning Back the Clock

Tom Leadon and Randall Marsh—two of the original members of Mudcrutch alongside Tom Petty, Mike Campbell and later Benmont Trench—the band’s reunion has been nothing short of a dream. And while the other three members have notched countless sold-out amphitheaters and arenas under their belts, not to mention this past Super Bowl halftime show, as The Heartbreakers, it’s clear Mudcrutch has been revitalizing. We caught up with Campbell, Leadon and Marsh to hear how it was going half way through their first tour in over 30 years.

What was it like hearing the idea of the Mudcrutch reunion not from Tom Petty but from Peter Bogdanovich?

Tom Leadon: Peter had come to Brentwood, TN where I teach music to interview me [for the documentary Runnin’ Down a Dream]. He asked me if I had any Mudcrutch pictures, so I took him into my room and he was saying, “Aww, we’ve seen all these already. You know, Tom mentioned to me the other day that he was thinking of having a Mudcrutch reunion.” I have to say that his words shot through me like a bolt of lightening. … I’ve been practicing everyday for years because I’m a musician but I always had faith that some day I could do something and get my music out there. I told Peter to tell Tom I was up for it. It was about another seven or eight months before I heard from Tom. I’m still just living a dream here. I feel better than if I won the lottery.

Randall Marsh: I was dumbfounded. I just presumed they’d been working on the movie and maybe had a few beers and Peter misconstrued some nostalgic idea. So I didn’t take it that seriously.

Leadon: When he called me, I was driving home from the supermarket and he said, “Hey, this is your old pal Tom Petty,” and I was like, “No… really?” I thought it was one of my friends jerking my chain. He said it again and I said again, “No… really?” I couldn’t hear him very well so I pulled my truck over to the side of the road and we talked for about an hour and it was just great.

I didn’t know that we’d do a whole record, I don’t think any of us did. Tom said he had an equipment warehouse and he’d set up some tape recording equipment and I thought, “Well, maybe we’ll make some demos and maybe something down the line will come out of it.” I was still really excited. I thought we’d get together for two or three days and just have fun, play a little music and then go home. As I got subsequent calls from Tom over the next few months, I found out that he was blocking out two weeks of time, that he had one of the best engineers in the business, and I’m thinking this is starting to sound really good. I was asking him about airline expenses and he said, “Ah, there’ll probably be a record deal somewhere down the line.” And I’m thinking to myself, record deal! And we hadn’t even played a note.

Did you ever expect, after this long—three decades—that this might happen?

Mike Campbell: It was out of the blue. I was pleasantly surprised when he called me and asked me what I thought. I thought, “That’d be really fun to do.” I was also surprised that with The Heartbreakers and all the other activities we’ve got going on—we’d just done the Super Bowl and we were setting up a summer tour—and I was impressed that Tom was so keen to do it, that he wanted to find time to squeeze this in. Obviously Tom didn’t have to do this project; this is something he really wanted to do.

It seems like Mudcrutch offers all of you an opportunity to be free of expectations, both from fans and label executives.

Campbell: It’s so liberating to do a project that has no baggage with it, no expectations. On some level it’s compared to The Heartbreakers but it’s a completely separate band, separate style of music. It’s still the same songwriter and singer but in this band Tom plays bass and that creates a whole different feel and different concept of how the music is going to flow. It’s really exciting to walk out onstage and not play any hits—for me, Ben [Benmont Trench] and Tom, that’s a real revelation. And to still have it go over as well as it has—the audiences are just going nuts—it’s real eye opener for the three of us that we can go out onstage with our original band, play songs they’ve never heard before and have it really work.

What was the first reunion show like in Malibu?

Campbell: It was a different type of pressure than, say, the Super Bowl or some big arena concert because they are right up in front of you and you’re presenting music they’ve never heard before. It was a real nice challenge and it was—and still is—very exciting to get up and play with our old friends. We were pleasantly surprised that people really seemed to respond to the chemistry and honesty of what we were presenting.

Leadon: I had the jitters a little bit. I remember driving over there in the car with Tom and Randall and it was just a magical thing, driving along the water to the gig and having the place sold-out. I just felt like at my age, here I am 55 years old, played guitar for 45 of them and played in a lot bands—and this was the most special band I was ever in, these were the guys I grew up with—so in a sense it was my coming-out party. It just felt like it was time.

Marsh: I kept telling myself, you take away the fame and celebrity, it’s just another gig, just another band. But before we went on, I was about to wet my pants. [laughs] These guys are so good, such pros, I didn’t want to let anybody down.

“Crystal River” seems to be something special, something a bit different than the rest of the tunes.

Campbell: That song was from the first day we got together and Tom had just barely written it. He just showed us the chords. We were getting use to the room and getting used to playing together again, so it did stretch on a bit because we were just discovering our sound. When we play that song live, it is one of the high points of the show. It seems like the audience is in on the joke—that these guys are really enjoying this and it’s fresh. And even though I haven’t heard this song before, there’s something magical going on that they really connect with. Every night it does that have element of “We’re going to go off in this direction and see where it lands.” It’s very exciting because The Heartbreakers don’t do that much.

The song represents all the elements that were Mudcrutch. Mudcrutch had two worlds that were coming together. One world was Tom Leadon and Tom Petty, who were deeply engrossed in country rock like Buffalo Springfield, The Byrds’ country stuff or The Flying Burrito Brothers. Randall and I were really versed in long improvisations, Grateful Deadish-type feel. Those two worlds are well represented in that song. It’s got a bit of country swing and feel in the verses but the instrumental part tends to take a few liberties, stretch out and come back to that. Those two worlds together is basically what the Mudcrutch sound is.

Does this band sound like the original Mudcrutch?

Campbell: The key here is it’s very true to the original Mudcrutch. The Mudcrutch that got signed to Shelter records and put out a few singles was a different Mudcrutch: Tom Leadon had left, Randall Marsh had left and a few other guys had come in and we’d gotten a little away from that original sound. This band is the original lineup and inspiration of what that band was all about. It sounds just like we did back in the day. When we recorded the album, we made a point of recording it live with no headphones, live vocals, live solos. It’s very, very true.

Leadon: What’s different, though, is that 30 some years later, we’ve all been playing, some of us famously, some of us not so famously. We’ve all been progressing with our music and I feel like we’re all much better players, singers and writers than we were then. When we started Mudcrutch, I wasn’t even 18 yet and by the time I was 20, I’d left the band. We had something special, it just never had a chance to fully develop. That’s something that’s so satisfying with his project. To me it feels like a chance to see what might have been.

Did you go back and listen to the original material when you were all together?

Campbell: That’s another thing that’s interesting: Even though we have the same sound and chemistry that we had back in the day, maybe 80 percent of the songs are freshly written.

Has there been any thought to revisit it or are you letting it lie?

Campbell: We like to leave that alone and move on with newer songs. We did a few covers on the record that were older, that we used to do back in the day, like “Six Days on the Road” and “Lover on the Bayou.” There’s one song on the album that we brought back from the old days that we actually never recorded but used to play at our shows that Tom Leadon wrote, “Queen of the Go Go Girls.”

Leadon: Now that we’re much more mature, better players—and Tom was always a good writer but now he’s a great writer—we come in and do the best song we have at the moment and it’s not going to be a song we wrote 35 years ago. Most of the others are brand-new songs and that’s because Tom is writing better now than he did then. He thought about some of the old songs, he thought, “Nah, that’s the sound of guys learning to play and write.”

One of the bands that Mudcrutch gets compared to a lot is Flying Burrito Brothers and Gram Parsons. I’m curious to hear your respective takes on Parsons.

Campbell: I’ve always thought he was a genius, brilliant and very soulful singer and I always loved his records. It was actually Tom Leadon and Tom Petty who turned me on to him. I just loved his whole trip.

Leadon: Tom and I first heard him, like many people, on Sweetheart of the Rodeo and we were really into that and we actually used to cover some of the tunes he did, like “Empty Bottle, Broken Heart.” We were hip to the fact that he and Chris Hillman started The Flying Brothers. Hillman was someone who my older brother Bernie had been in a band with as teenagers in San Diego before The Byrds, called Scottsville Squirrel Barkers. Chris was the main guy that inspired my brother to move to L.A. to try and make it. So we started listening to the first Flying Burrito album and we just loved it. We were doing Flying Burritos covers and nobody in Florida was doing anything like that. They didn’t understand why these longhaired rock musicians would be playing this truck-stop country music. We just loved it. Gram, for me, was the one that inspired me to sing other than just a few harmony parts I used to do. … So really, the reason Tom Petty and I got into country was my brother’s influence. We’d get these records from the West Coast and the public in general didn’t know about it and then [my brother] joined The Flying Burrito Brothers, which was our favorite band. I was just thrilled. He made a couple of records with them.

When I moved to LA in ‘73—I was the first to leave Mudcrutch and I was living with my brother—I met Gram there at some nightclubs with Clarence White and people like that. He was just my hero. Bernie played on his last album, Grievous Angel, and took me to the sessions so I got to hang out with Gram and I got to meet Emmylou [Harris] and they became close friends. It was just such a tragedy when he died. I saw the destructive side of him as well. I hung out with him enough to see that. I felt that he was a genius but a flawed genius. He was a wonderful person. … Ultimately he didn’t take care of himself, he destroyed himself and… it’s not a good thing he did there. We could still have Gram today if he didn’t do that… I just don’t understand why people do things like that to themselves but we’re lucky we had him when we did. His vision of putting together rock, country, gospel and R&B for this cosmic American music that he talked about, it really affected a lot of the music that came after that.

Mike, what is it like playing with Tom on bass after so long and working with the other Tom on guitar? Do you sense that it might make the Heartbreakers’ dynamic fresh in some ways?

Campbell: Tom played bass back in the day with Mudcrutch—when I met him, he was the bass player and he was always great at the bass. All the years with The Heartbreakers, he’s played guitar, which he’s also great on. He writes his songs on the guitar. I know Tom was really keen to play the bass again and I know he practiced it really hard for this project because he wanted to make sure he could carry his end. I think playing the bass and making this record live, I think it was an eye-opener for Tom to sing live and play the bass, it really connected him with how he started out in bands. I think it’s liberated him and made him enjoy music in a way that he hasn’t in many years. I am hopeful that some of that energy and awakening will spillover into stuff we do in the future.

What does the future hold for Mudcrutch?

Campbell: The whole project started as a whim and then it became a record and now it’s become some gigs. Every step along the way it’s been so enjoyable and so positive and received so well, I can’t see any reason for it not to continue. It’s just a matter of finding time to do it. We’re as happy as a musician can be playing these gigs. Something this fun you couldn’t just put it down and not keeping going.

About the Author:
Written by Mike Greenhaus* **Childhood Addictions:* Tuna and Chocolate Milk *Fun Phish Fact:* It took me 45 shows to hear “Fee” *Genetic Jamband Bobble:* My bouncy walk resembles my disheveled dance step *Genuine Jamband Geekster:* I’ve seen a concert in all five of New York’s boroughs (even Staten Island!). Visit www.relix.com for more information.

Igniting Your Business Spark

Entrepreneurialism and business go hand in hand, and igniting your initial business spark and passion is an important process in getting any business venture off the ground. Without that spark of entrepreneurialism, no business venture could ever take off, and no business risks would be taken, resulting in fewer large entities and ultimately fewer jobs. Thus entrepreneurialism is fundamental to the success of our society and the economy as a whole. But how do you go about igniting your spark of entrepreneurialism to get things off the ground? What’s more, how can your business benefit from entrepreneurialism and innovation through its business areas?

Entrepreneurialism is essential to the success of business. Your business can only survive long term by adopting an entrepreneurialism approach to how decisions are made. Entrepreneurialism states that a business must be dynamic and responsive to change, and this requires a constant spark of entrepreneurialism to maintain throughout any organisation. As a business owner, it’s up to you to show those sparks of entrepreneurialism to get your business moving and competing with rival business owners within your industry. It’s up to you to innovate and challenge the perceptions and limitations within your industry to gain a competitive edge and to boost your chances of success.

Entrepreneurialism impacts on whether your business takes risks or rejects them. Depending on whether you’re passionate about the approach of entrepreneurialism, your business may or may not pursue the risky strategies that can deliver significant returns, provided the increased risks are minimised. Hence adopting an entrepreneurial approach can bring increase rewards to your business, provided you’re willing to run the natural increased risks associated accordingly.

Igniting that spark of entrepreneurialism can give your business an injection of life, and can lead you to pursue more adventurous sales avenues and cost cutting methods. After a period of stagnation, finding something to reignite your spark can work wonders for your business. It might be as a result of some failure, or some sign of success, but no matter what the stimulus, your spark must be diverted into profitable channels for your business, and you will notice a resulting improvement in sales and profits as a consequence. Entrepreneurialism is a power tool to have on your side, and that passion and confidence keen entrepreneurialism brings can be particularly effective in helping your business to flourish.

Igniting that spark of entrepreneurialism is key to the success and future growth of business, as well as your short term profitability. Without that initial motivation to go forward, take the risk and get involved in business, and to continue this spirit through the initial years and further beyond, no venture could ever get started or grow to any significant degree. Thus entrepreneurialism is vital in any business getting off the ground, and in achieving any level of success or growth. Without entrepreneurialism, you wouldn’t be prepared to risk losing your full time income, and in making this step to forgo employment you’ll be embodying that spirit of entrepreneurialism so important to your overall success.

About the Author:
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Small Business As A Sole Trader

Small business as a sole trader is often consider arduous and full of struggle, with problems in overcoming credibility issues to increased tax burdens and personal liability. However, run effectively, a small business as a sole trader can be both profitable and successful, and can provide worthwhile goods and services to their local and wider communities. Running a small business as a sole trader can be flexible, cost effective and administratively less burdenous than other business forms, but no less conducive to achieving success in your chosen industry. However there are some factors you need to consider day to day when running a small business as a sole trader, and in particular whether some other business form would be more appropriate in your particular circumstances.

Doing business as a sole trader inevitably carries connotations of a lack of professionalism and credibility, born from the impression that many such businesses are run from the ‘back bedroom’, and are consequently incapable of providing quality. Convincing business owners to deal with a sole trader is much more difficult than it might be with other business structures, and while that prejudiced may not be merited, it is nevertheless persistent. A good way around this is to use a trading name for your business to give the impression of a more professional organisation, or to brand in your own name as if you were branding a business. Both of these techniques can divert much of the ill-feeling and distrust associated with sole traders as opposed to other business structures.

Running a small business as a sole trader also has risks associated with it in particular, as compared to other business formats. As a sole trader, you are ultimately responsible for all the debts of your small business, and your personal assets will be at risk if your business is unable to repay its debts. Thus, there is an obvious risk associated with running a small business as a sole trader, and this is one of the main reasons some opt for alternative structures. However, by making calculated financial decisions and not borrowing beyond your means, the sole trade model can be a flexible, suitable alternative to many of the more formal arrangements without compromising your personal wealth. While the risks remain, making sure you’re aware of your market and your physical payment capabilities should prevent your small business from running into financial difficulties.

Running a small business as a sole trader is a great way to start off in business, and can even be a good way to run much larger operations in certain industries. Of course, it’s not without its problems, from unlimited liability through to credibility issues, which can often hold back the progress of any small business run as a sole trader. However, by ensuring you work towards overcoming these obstacles, you should find as a sole trader you are more flexible in the operation of your small business, and you can enjoy the full rewards of your efforts with the minimum in administrative hassle.

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Quitting Employment For Business

Quitting stable employment for business is a brave move, but one that all entrepreneurs will have to take at some stage if they are ever to achieve their business ambitions. In the spirit of entrepreneurialism, giving up your job to start your own business is a risk, but provided you have a business idea and the ability to bring that to fruition, it should be a calculated one, with the potential to deliver serious rewards. In entrepreneurialism and business, these risks must be taken from time to time if you’ve ever to achieve any degree of success, and when it comes to quitting your full time job, that’s the first risk of many more to come. Provided you quit when you’re ready to take off with your business, the process of handing in your notice shouldn’t be too risky.

Entrepreneurialism is all about judging and taking the right risks to reap the associated rewards. Quitting your full time job to start up in business is one of those risks so fundamental to entrepreneurialism, and your ability to start and succeed in business is utterly dependent upon you taking this step. No one ever got rich working for someone else, and no one ever run a successful business without foregoing traditional employment. However, entrepreneurialism aside, taking that decision to finally reject conventional employment in favour of running your own business is a difficult thing to do on a personal level, and one that must be justified as a significant decision to be made.

Giving up your job to start a business can be difficult on a number of levels, despite the fact that it is fundamental to entrepreneurialism. Firstly it can be difficult personally, severing ties with your office colleagues and friends for good. This can be made even more difficult where there is a sense of loyalty and dependency on your input, which can cause feelings of guilt and unease. In addition to that, giving up your job means giving up an income, which is obviously an extremely risky thing to do with bills to pay and mouths to feed. Overcoming these obstacles is difficult, and will require a great deal of thought and dedication. However the rewards of running your own business and making your own success will ultimately far outweigh these negative elements of giving up employment.

Giving up a full time position is never a decision to be taken lightly, and you must have some degree of confidence in your business to take this step. Don’t quit your job before you have the groundwork for your business in place, including enough money in savings to tide you over until your business venture starts generating profits. Only when you are confident your full time efforts can generate enough of a return to keep your head above the water should you commit to leaving your current employment. Only then can you stand a decent chance of success running your new business, without the financial constraints many who leave their jobs too early must overcome.

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Delivering A Business Presentation

Delivering a business presentation is something most of us fear, but in actual fact they are a vital element to running a successful business. From delivering sales pitches to prospective stockists through to delivering a business presentation for investors, there are a number of occasions in which solid presentation skills are vital to your business. Thus spending time learning the tips to successful presentation and business presentation techniques can deliver a tangible return to your business, and make delivering presentations a more confident and straightforward experience, resulting in more impact in the presentations you deliver.

Firstly, before attempting to deliver a business presentation you should try to clear any anxieties you may have around talking in public and addressing an audience, as these will only serve to hamper your business presentation. If you can communicate with a person one-to-one, there’s no reason you can’t communicate with multiple people at the same time, and essentially that’s what any business presentation is. Rather than viewing a business presentation on a pedestal, you should treat it as if it were any other conversation, albeit you have a rough idea of what you’re going to say in advance of the conversation. That way, you’ll find the process much less daunting and be more equipped to view your business presentation skills in perspective.

When delivering a business presentation, there are a variety of styles that can predominantly be adopted, depending on your confidence, skill and flair. The first is to create a presentation and take in a written version to be delivered orally – in other words, reading from detailed notes. For the nervous presenter this technique can be a great way of getting the job done, but for success through business presentation delivery, you’re going to need to adopt a more professional style. The second style is to come equipped with bulleted notes, depicting the general direction the business presentation is to take. This is a useful tactic for most presentations, although it is limited and perhaps less flowing to use this style than the third – off the top of the head. The off the top of the head business presentation style oozes confidence and competence, and is one of the most effective in achieving objectives. Without notes, simply
talking about your presentation subject and sharing your knowledge, you can connect much more personally with your audience and really hit home your core message. Aim to adopt this conversational, confident approach in delivering your next business presentation, for a more effective and flowing delivery.

Finally, a crucial element to delivering any business presentation is the eye-contact. Making eye-contact with your audience can seem difficult at first, but it is crucial that you direct your attention to individual audience members to make for a more engaging delivery. This simple technique also inspires confidence in the message you’re delivering, and makes your business presentation more memorable and interesting, particularly where the presentation is in a free-flowing style. Combined with a confident oral delivery, eye contact can make or break any business presentation.

About the Author:
Work from home and Be Your Own Boss with CityLocal Business Franchising Opportunities. Choose Your Own Working Hours – www.citylocal.co.uk & www.citylocal.ie