Whilst the short answer is yes, it often isn’t easy to ask a bestie business mate to sign a contract or perhaps a better word ‘an agreement’ when you first hook up.
It is exciting, you are firing on all cylinders, work is coming in and you have a great team of vendors and work besties cheering you on.
Why upset the apple cart when it is all going so wonderfully well by mentioning a contract?
Because this could upset a relationship you have built up. Short answer.
But the longer game is it could all go terribly wrong for no fault of your own, after all we are dealing with people, egos, their businesses and praying the relationship stays the course. It often doesn’t.
I have even seen husband and wife businesses split up and it isn’t pleasant.
I have personally experienced this and spoken to many wedding business owners who have horror stories so let’s talk agreements and contracts.
Agreements and Contracts for Wedding Business Owners
When you hire suppliers and recommend them to your clients it is hugely important you have an agreement or contract in place with them.
Either you are contracting them or you have recommended your client does and are dealing with the wedding supplier directly on your recommendation.
But as a business owner you need this to be watertight, this is where a piece of paper or an email comes into effect.
Get something in black and white, an email confirmation, a bank transfer confirmation and the services they have been booked to provide.
For a wedding supplier it is so important to have a document signed by the client of the services you will be providing for this wedding or event.
It is a legally binding contract between two parties.
If the client cancels the day before the event and you have turned down other bookings for them what do you have to claim recompense?
Chances are you don’t.
Especially if you are one of the smaller suppliers such as a cake designer, hair and make up or entertainment.
Contracts with Collaborators
I had not heard of this one before as never offered or sold packages but had a lovely chat this evening with an elopement planner who was moving on from a disastrous bestie business relationship that went sour overnight.
She had hooked up with a ‘friend’, a wedding photographer and between her team and this photographer they sold elopement packages.
Her photographer bestie was the only one she used for her business packages. All her work for years had been documented by this one photographer and then the ‘fallout’ happened.
The photographer immediately asked her to take down any images of hers, which was her entire business, threatened her so much she had to close down her socials and had to remove all images from her website for fear of being sued for showcasing her own work as the photographer retained the copyright to the images.
The photographer even took her website and Google reviews down.
Whilst this real life story is really quite shocking it shows how much someone else can trample on your business unless you have a black and white ‘agreement’.
I did question the fact and put a scenario out there of this happening in a different business and would welcome any thoughts but it seems photographers can wake up one day and just say I am having a bad day and none of my clients can now use my images?!
So if an interior designer or property company hire a photographer to take images of their work and pay them accordingly who owns the images? The photographer or the client?
My sister works in publishing and often contracts photographers for styled food shoots and they are used in her books so who owns the rights to these images?
Are the photographers signing over the rights to their work in contracts? You can bet your bottom dollar they are. No book publisher would want to wake up and find the photographer had had a hissy fit and decided they needed to withdraw all their images from the books, it doesn’t happen.
As a wedding business you need to have the same contracts in place to protect your business.
Without Wedding Supplier Contracts in Place
If a photographer suddenly takes a dislike to you or a wedding provider decides your wedding isn’t worth the effort the day before what do you have in place?
If you are a provider and have ordered the flowers, started designing the jewellery, finished their stationery, bought more makeup, booked other entertainers what have you got set out in your terms and conditions if they cancel?
Hiring Wedding Staff
Now this is a subject close to my heart as I took on what I thought was a business bestie a long time ago now but again had no formal agreement in place.
We had become ‘business besties’ and for years it worked well until I was alerted to the fact my company was doing weddings without my knowledge or any deposits.
My ‘business bestie’ had decided to use my business name and book weddings, taking deposits directly off clients without putting them through my business.
So she was building her ‘sideline’ business off the back of my business by handing out her business cards and clients were thinking they were booking my company whereas in fact they weren’t.
They were booking her stealing clients from my presence and my reputation I had built up.
I had no contract or agreement with her but we quickly parted ways albeit awkward as had a year of weddings booked to complete.
So the one lesson here is get the contracts or agreements in place even if you think you are working with your business bestie or your most fab supplier.
If you wish to put contracts into place and want to have a chat with me then email me at lauracbow@gmail.com
Let’s help you protect your wedding business before it all goes terribly wrong.
Some links to the usage of photographers images and where you stand.
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