Terms and conditions

Your business needs effective terms and conditions of business:

• To ensure that your customers’ expectations and your legal commitments match what you intend to deliver
• To protect you from excessive claims
• To satisfy statutory requirements.

It is important to have these written specially for your business, and to use them in the right way, or they may not be effective and may even make matters worse.

Commercial agreements

You may need trading agreements with other businesses, such as distribution agreements, re-seller agreements and licences. If the other party provides these, remember that they will have been written for their benefit, not yours, and signing them without a legal review could have disastrous consequences for you.

Articles of association and shareholder agreements

A company’s Articles of Association are its internal rules. They describe how it functions and have a key role in protecting the shareholders’ investments and roles in the business. The standard Articles that come with a new company are seldom adequate, and a bespoke document is often required.

A separate Shareholders Agreement may also be needed.

Without these documents, expensive and disruptive disputes are far more likely as the personal interests of the shareholders diverge over time.