Unlock Digital Signature Legitimateness for Business Agreements in Canada

How to eSign a document: digital signature legitimateness for Business agreements in Canada

with multiple business to rescue puppy dogs who won you can probably hear snoring cuz she's laying at my feet as I record this right now but I am going to get on a soapbox today guys I am going to talk about using digital contracts I'm not going to talk about the reasons you need to have contracts in a nutshell expectation tool legal protection tool customer service tool we'll talk about that in another episode but the use of digital contracts saves your life your client and customers lives it allows everyone to be happier more efficient and saves the trees because in this day and age with technology there's no reason that we're not using digital contracts to the best that we can for more efficiency best legal protection and just so that we don't have to wait on the other person because think about this you send me a contract in PDF form I'm on my phone picking up the kids from school sitting in the car pickup line and I get your contract for me to sign on the customer in this case right and you want me to book you well I have to wait till I get home go plug my computer into the printer realize that the printer is out of ink either get on Amazon oh wait a day or two for it to come or drive down to a Walmart after I get all five kids back in the vehicle fight through Walmart trying to figure out which ink I need come all the way home only for it to jam and having to sit there for 15 20 minutes so frustrated now imagine if you had sent me a digital contract that I could want click sign online I'd have been done before even little Timmy got in the car to tell me about his day and to take him to soccer practice okay I absolutely can't stand when people do PDFs want me to print sign it and send it back online digital contracts is the way to go if you get nothing else out of any other podcasts that I talk about please listen to that most but of course I got to give you a little information our digital contracts even legal well obviously if I'm in my soapbox about this digital contracts and signatures are legal and we have the e-sign act in the United States that backs us up Congress enacted a sack with three goals in mind to allow us to use and sign legally binding contracts online to increase business efficiency by speeding up the contracting process which is what I've been talking about and facilitating commerce and lastly its intended for to strengthen consumer protection as it relates to e-commerce because there's mandated disclosures retention of accurate records and they also create specific sections as well but we'll talk about that in a little bit so it's awesome we can have these digital contracts and signatures right but what really contracts the digital contract or a signature really the scope what I'm going to talk about is when you're using the online systems that are available out there that are contract signing systems they may vary in their terms a little bit but just know that is not all that you have to have in order for it to be legally and binding document you could utilize the pennant contracts like I talked about but that's such a pain in the behind now fast-forwarding a little bit what is their criteria for admissibility for a contract first we must be able to prove by the intent of the individual that signing and security of the signed document which is really important because additional contract may not be allowed in court due to lack of security or authentication I share this to say you guys need to check on the systems that you're using free is not best in fact free often does not have the security and it's also allowing for your clients information to be publicly shared happens all the time I've seen it trust me it happens now I do want you guys to keep in mind that in a contract not just in the digital signing age but we need to have clear and consistent terms the parties need to have a legal capacity to sign there needs to be an exchange of value between parties no duress or undue influence and they did not sign by mistake without knowledge a meaning of the contract so essentially use these online contract signing systems for efficiency facilitate your commerce and also allow for people to understand they're signing a contract label is the contract send it through a contract signing system they're going to see that it's a legal document it also gives you professional points in the consumers eyes and you fulfill the last requirement of the valid contract that is knowing that it's a contract right now there are some contracts that are not really that important to creatives or entrepreneurs that are enforceable by electronic signatures such as wills documents relating to adoption divorce and other family law matters those types of things if you want to look at the entire esign Act carving out these exceptions go ahead and go take a look just google assign acting you'll find it but that's just to let you guys know the context of how you need to work with digital signatures they are invalid as long as your contract is valid the contract is by signed by the person he's intending to they're in their right mind and all those items that I just listed out so we've got that we are we've got all the elements of a contract and got our contract signing system but we need to make sure that the system is secure this is really super important to me we have the duty as business owners to protect our clients information and to let them know what they are signing all right so I've already told you guys on digital contracts there's a variety of options out there WordPress plug-in studio management software's and so forth I'm gonna link my favorites into the transcript of this episode you can go to Rachel breaky comm for size epi 30 just keep in mind that there's a lot of systems out there and I don't recommend you choosing systems that or do not have the security in place that don't identify that it's a legally binding contract now once you've done that you're not done I recommend backing up the contract in fact I recommend backing up in the rule of threes on my computer I have an external and then I have a cloud then I have my computer always running for Dropbox as well so I have three I have the computer external I have Backblaze or a CrashPlan that's running in the background then I also drag all my important documents into Dropbox now keep in mind utilizing digital contracts upfront before you ever get the client in the door for any type of session it's a perfect way for you guys to be able to have a one-on-one whether you're having a photography session you're designing a logo for them or you're a wedding planner you don't necessarily want to spend the entire time that you meet one-on-one working on this contract stuff setting contracts digitally ahead of time giving the clients an opportunity to read it understand it and ask questions and then digitally sign send back to you gives copies to you both you both can electronically store it and have it backed up everyone is happy there's a law that supports it for you use this business efficiency make the most out of it I hope that this really has courage you to dig into the area of digital contract signing keep in mind the prerequisites that you need to have you need to have the create the clear and consistent terms and contract legal capacity to sign exchange of value between parties no duress or undue influence and make sure that it is identified that it is a contract you're not hiding it in a little text of your website putting a different heading to it make it nice and clear these contract signing systems that are secure that are intended for contract signing will do this for you get on board with one of these get behind them use them integrated into your client workflow and you guys will have no problem protecting yourself legally assuming that it is a lawyer drafted contract but ensuring that you've delivered all the information the client they're gonna feel more confident they're gonna buy into you see you as more professional they're gonna feel protected you're gonna be protected and at the end of the day that is what matters most this episode was sponsored by honey book an online client management system that I strongly recommend you guys check out for your business it has contracts questionnaires payment options anything you can think of to help facilitate and run your creative business I highly recommend honey book for contract signing for all the reasons you guys just heard through this episode go on and check it out thanks for joining Rachel on this episode of the business bites for show notes a list of recommended tools or reference episodes you can find them at business bites podcast.com until next time