Why Do You Need Terms & Conditions For Your Small Business?
A set of terms and conditions are a set of rules for the use of your equipment as well as the services that your customer can expect to receive for the money they pay you. You can also detail specific requirements such as the amount of deposit, any security bond that may be due and the dates by which these must be paid by in order to receive your services.
Why do I need Terms and Conditions?
Providing your customers with terms and conditions for your services or goods informs them of your obligations and rights when it comes to doing business with you. This document protects your business too. It is a legal document that can be presented to show an agreement was made and the terms of business that were agreed upon and may be needed for dealing with issues such as late payment or damaged equipment. It may not be the most exciting part of starting your business, but writing your terms and conditions is important.
What Information Should Terms and Conditions Include?
Standard Terms and Conditions usually include:
Details of the goods and services to be provided
Payment required
Any Guarantees or Warrantees on goods or services
The conditions of delivery and assembly of the equipment
The collection of equipment
Period in which the party can be cancelled without further payment due
The governing law that applies
When Do I Show My Terms and Conditions To My Customer?
Your terms and conditions must be put forward to the customer before the contract with them is made other wise they are void. Simply attaching them to your invoices or mentioning to your customer where they can view a copy of them on its own is not going to be sufficient. Your customer needs to be aware of, and given the chance to object to, your terms before the contract is formed. Only after this is done should payment be taken and the contract officially formed.
How Do My I Make Sure My Terms and Conditions are Legally Binding?
There are some simple steps that can be put in place to maximise your chances of your terms and conditions are legally binding with your customers
Make your terms and conditions available in as many ways as possible (e.g. give them a copy, display on your website, send them with quotations and invoices.)
Always confirm party bookings in writing along with a sentence stating that the terms and conditions apply, attaching a copy of them or telling your customers where to find them (e.g. on your website).
Consider making the terms and conditions an electronic form that can be initialled or signed by the customer to agree that they have read each section.
Put working procedures in place to make sure that your business does not act on a customer’s order (that is, accept a customer’s offer) without first sending the customer your written order acknowledgement, as above.
As a contract can be formed verbally, make sure that any discussions with customers, i.e. over the telephone or face to face, are always said to be subject to the terms and conditions for your services.
Tara Bailey
I am the founder of Dreamee Teepees® based in the UK. I opened my Sleepover Business in 2016 and have been running it successfully ever since. You can find out more about me here
