Your team is an essential part of your business. Whether you are hiring employees, freelancers or contractors, to help the operational side of your business work as smoothly as possible, your contracts or terms and conditions are an important factor to protecting your team and yourself as the business owner. When it comes to receiving terms and conditions from a freelancer, I highly recommend you take the time to really read through everything they are sending to you.
This may feel like a lot of work, as who actually reads the terms and conditions sent to them when they sign up to a new app or get a new phone? But this is your business! You need to make sure you show the people you are working with the respect and loyalty, as well as the compassion for their contracts, by committing time and effort to reading their terms and conditions, as you would want your clients to do when they work with you. It is very important that freelancers sign contracts particularly if they contribute towards the creativity of your business, for example, with copywriting, web design, marketing and so on.
This should be a contract for service and specify that the freelancer does not have any right to the product once it has been created otherwise you have no legal right to claim to whatever they have produced is yours, unless there is a clear provision. As for employees, if you are hiring new members of staff, you should always ensure they fully understand what is expected of them for their job role, from their job description being easy to understand and making sure it really explains what they are going to do within the company, as well as their employee contract which must be sent to them within 2 months of the hire.
I highly recommend you speak with a lawyer to compile your business terms and conditions as well as your employee contracts, as you don't want to overwhelm your clients or your team, but you must also ensure it protects your business from any future queries or potential tribunals.You also need to consider writing a contract for yourself as the director of the company in relation to what is expected of you, in terms of jobs and duties you will provide to the company. Whenever it comes to bringing new people into your business, the contract is an important element so everyone knows their requirements and that they are respected.
