Plano Texas Business Rules of Customer Engagement

If you don’t establish rules for your Plano business, your customers will do it for you. Instead of a win-win relationship, you’re likely to find yourself on the short end of the stick. Contrary to popular belief, the customer is not always right. In fact, your business rules should establish what is right because, more often than not, your customer doesn’t really know.

What should you do?

Establish clear rules on how your prospects and customers will deal with you, i.e. what is and isn’t acceptable behavior — then enforce those rules.

For example, if you have Net 30 payment terms, don’t tolerate slippage. There will always be customers who will test your boundaries. The Net 30 becomes Net 120…and then simply nonpayment if you make exceptions to your rules.

When you enforce the boundaries set by your rules, you’ll either eliminate potential troublemakers before they become customers or quickly thereafter. This is important because you’ll make more money dealing with customers on your terms than catering to those who violate them.

Of course, one of the best ways to set your rules is in a clear “plain English” contract that’s enforceable under Texas law. When your customer signs the agreement, it is hard to argue ignorance of the rules within it. Your Plano business lawyer can help you put together customized Texas contracts for unique deals and standard contract templates for repeat transactions that contain the right legal terms.

Texas Nondisclosure Agreements

Texas business nondisclosure agreements are contracts where one or more parties agree to keep secret certain information. A nondisclosure agreement can be an independent contract or the provisions can be part of a larger agreement, such as an employment contract or an agreement to buy a company. From tech trade secrets to customer lists, there are many topics that one can agree not to disclose to others.

If your Texas company wants to enter into a nondisclosure agreement, remember the handshake rule. If you wouldn’t trust the person to honor a nonbinding “gentlemen’s agreement” agreed to with a handshake, chances are high that you’ll end up in court trying to enforce your rights under the nondisclosure contract. In nondisclosure breach cases, your damages are often high because the confidential information has already been used against you by the time you head to court to enforce your legal rights.

Quite frankly, putting the nondisclosure provisions in a contract serves the primary purpose of letting the other party know how important you view the data as confidential and that you intend to protect your legal rights. Your Plano business lawyer will be able to draft contract language that makes this clear. That will deter some from ever crossing you by leaking the information or otherwise using it in violation of your contract.

Texas Contracts

A Texas contract is an agreement between at least two parties (individuals or businesses) that describes what the parties have agreed to. Provisions agreed to can be positive (do X), negative (not do Y), or a combination of both (do X but not Y).

Although parties usually intend for their contract to be legally enforceable, there are agreements that may not be legally binding. For instance, if one party to the agreement is mentally incompetent, the contract might not be binding against him. A contract to do something illegal is almost always unenforceable. For example, if the parties agree to sell cocaine (an illegal substance), there isn’t going to a way to enforce the agreement in court or otherwise.

Most Texas business contracts of value are in writing to ensure that they can be enforced. However, in some instances, a verbal agreement can be a binding contract. Factors that may determine whether an oral contract is legally enforceable include the dollar amount (value) of the contract and whether the parties can perform their obligations under the agreement in less than one year.

Oral agreements are not preferred because they can lead to misunderstandings (and related lawsuits). The better course of action is to have a written agreement signed by all the parties to the agreement.

Whether or not your Plano, Texas business attorney negotiates the contract on your behalf, you should have him paper the details to make sure that your rights are fully protected.

Of course, the best action is to only enter into contracts with parties who you trust will carry out their obligations under the agreement. If your gut instinct bugs you about a potential deal, that red flag is probably a good sign that the proposed contract will harm you in some way. Be prepared to walk. There are always alternatives to signing a bad contract.

Buy-Sell Agreements: Texas

Texas business owners can use buy-and-sell contracts called buy-sell agreements to make it easy for surviving owners to purchase the equity interest of a co-owner who wants to leave the company (such as retirement), faces personal bankruptcy, becomes incapacitated because of ill health, or even dies.

If your Plano business is a Texas corporation, a Texas limited liability company, a general or limited partnership, you should consider putting a buy-sell agreement into place to protect the long-term interests of yourself and the business.

One of the key benefits of using a buy-sell agreement is that it reduces risks for everyone in advance of bad events. You can customize the agreement to have it address the unique facts surrounding your business and the individuals who own it rather than trying to deal with courts and lawyers after-the-fact when a co-owner leaves. With careful planning, the contract will permit your Plano company to continue operations without a hitch.

Of course, your business and your lives will change over the years. If you’ve got a buy-sell agreement in place already, you’ll want to review it with your Plano business law firm to make sure that it always reflects what you want done based on the present rather than how things used to be.