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Event planner invoice example for corporations

hi guys thank you again so much for joining us today as I said earlier this is our first webinar for 2018 and I'm really excited that I was able to bring someone with quite a bit of legal knowledge to share with you about how you can better improve your contracts and improve your business just to ensure that your business has all the right steps in place and you do have all the right structures and foundation to work with your clients and do that well and hopefully be successful while you're doing it so before I jump into the session I'll just take a few minutes to introduce tecora and share a little bit more about why I think you will be learning so much from her in this session so attorney to Cora Davis Esquire she is an attorney she's a legal adviser and a business strategist she's also a professor speaker and a podcaster who founded the creator's law firm and the careers law firm is a boutique intellectual property and business law firm that helps creative entrepreneurs and small business owners protect their smarts and she helps clients to successfully navigate their trademark copyright and licensing matters now with her culturally relevant approach Decker is committed to empowering creatives such as yourself with the tools and knowledge that you need to not only understand your intellectual property but to monetize your creative works now her clients include Hollywood celebrities award-winning wedding professionals artists creative entrepreneurs designers business coaches and Ted and TEDx speakers and because of her innovative work she's also been featured on vh1 WBTV charlotte what in wire world behind the veil and the session magazine now I'll turn things over to tecora so she can better inform you and teach us everything that she knows today awesome thank you so much for the stellar introduction I am so excited to be here today and share just my gifts in my talents and my expertise with everyone please let me know if you cannot see me or you cannot hear me or I look weird just pop in the chat and let me know because I want this to be a wonderful experience and I don't want any audio or visual technical difficulties to get in the way of this presentation what I'm going to do now is pull up the presentation and I'm a very interactive in terms of presenter I love interacting with people so I want you guys to ask questions throughout we don't have to wait until the end and we can definitely do that so I hope that I'll still be able to see those questions popping up and please let me know Jody if you are able to see the presentation yes I can see it and I'll keep on top of the chat for you okay lovely and you know what we can it's weird but I can't now I can't see the chat or anything like that so someone has a question Jody please let me know and I'll stop and I'll answer in the midst of it okay will do okay lovely so this presentation is going to cover five contractual mistakes that event planners make before jumping into anything as any a good attorney will do I have to give a disclaimer so today we're going to engage in a lot of shenanigans but on a more serious note I have to let you know that this presentation is for informational and educational purposes only and it should not be construed as legal advice I would love to be your attorney unless a client engagement letter aside and a few Ben Franklin's are exchanged that means plenty no attorney-client relationship between me you or those in attendance Shelby for any information here is provided is not considered privileged or confidential so if there's some sort something that you have or question you have and you're like oh I don't want the world to know the chat feature is not the means to probably ask that question because everybody can see your business you have specific legal questions you should seek the advice of an attorney who's authorized to practice law in your local state or jurisdiction I'm also an intellectual property attorney which is what's cool about trademarks and copyrights so I can represent anyone in any state so that's a discipline back for you all to know though it's Jodi Sharon I'm an attorney for creative entrepreneurs and wedding I'm the founder and managing attorney at the creator's law firm I recently celebrated my one-year in business so I'm so excited that I survived my first year and I think that that really in terms of running a business I sometimes feel a little green even though I'm going to be an attorney for three years in March but I've learned a lot along the way and I just love working with creatives and wedding professionals oh why do I work with wedding professionals this is my wedding day any opportunity I get to share my wedding photos I think it you have to see so this is like our little first touch in my cute husband you can't see it so why do I work with wedding professionals well I work with wedding professionals because although I had a beautiful wedding and have an awesome marriage leading up to the wedding I experienced a lot of I would say turmoil on behalf of a bride dealing with various vendors from the first wedding planner I hired and I should have known better as a budding law student she gave me pretty much an invoice and that was our contract there is no formal contract so it didn't really talk about how can we get out of this Agreement termination where her service what my expectations of her would be it was lacking in so many areas so as a bride I had certain expectations and I believe as a wedding planner she did - and we just sued me I - I because that contract did not serve either of us well and so because I didn't trust her I had to ultimately fire her and I lost money then I ended up hiring another wedding planner she did a phenomenal job but I'd also hired some other vendors that you know along the way on my own and I didn't have before getting my wedding planner and it was very difficult to transition all of that I would even say oh gosh a week before my wedding the person who was supposed to be driving the limo he called and cancelled on us he said well it's prom season and you know I pretty much be at your beck and call for the two hours you've hired me and I'm like hey I drafted this contract again I wasn't an attorney then I was a baby attorney earlier of law school so I'm like okay I know how to write a contract I put that together I present it to him and guys he didn't even honor the contract and I had him say hey you need to be we're paying you by the hour you need to be there for two hours and paid him in full and he was saying no I'm only supposed to pick you guys up and drop you off and I supposed to wait around so a week before the wedding had to scramble and find someone else to transport my bridal party so I realized that but I also had some other phenomenal experiences with those other vendors and so I knew that sometimes it's a matter of supporting wedding vendors in this industry so that they can serve clients better and that could be you know encouraging you all to have the right systems in place and a part of a great system is to have a contract that really serves you will and so today this presentation is going to focus on those five contractual mistakes that event planners make but guys I couldn't stop at five so you're gonna get extras that's good so what are you gonna learn today you're gonna recover those rookie contractual mistakes that event planners make and wedding planners make the essential contracts that you certainly should have and finally you're gonna have a Q&A with legal Bay I'm your legal belly disclaimer down here I'm happily married although I'm I'm not entertaining suitors you're supposed to laugh at a laugh track at the bottom of this so you guys are not laughing you're not participating and in the presentation okay I need you guys to participate all right so how many of you all agree with this and you need type in the chat Joe you let me know if they're agreeing if something goes wrong on the wedding day the ride is going to look to you first is that true yes if you agree and you can also use that raise-your-hand option in front of you yeah the bride is going to look to you guys first yeah you're getting a lot of absolutely true yes yes so true right like isn't it it's it's going down if something goes down they're looking at you guys first I remember on the day of my wedding I said in my sweetheart table and directly across from me was my wedding cake and it was facing everyone and it looked perfect because everyone was in front of us but in my peripheral vision my cake was leaning back like this I was like called my wedding planner I was like why is my cake leaning like my cake is leaning and rocking what's going on so I mean I didn't I didn't even I didn't care to ask for the Baker or the DJ I was looking for the wedding planner because she was supposed to oversee everything I'll tell you guys that story on another day so great contracts is the power to pick on tracks protect you they protect your clients and they protect your team guys a contract is a great tool that covers the scope of the agreement that you have with your engaged couple they protect you as the wedding planner and really the facilitator of this entire event and it also protects your staff a well traffic contract will serve not only you it'll serve everyone who is connected with you and it helps govern the relationship it is a tool that you should use and be empowered to use and I hope that you walk away from this presentation feeling that mistake number one that I see is that there's no contract at all okay that's one of the biggest mistakes that event planners make it's simply a handshake deal this could happen with your yo you'll play cousin I think it happened with your brothers sisters with your brother sister is you your sibling your brothers aunties whoever you know so hey I've known this family friend or they they love me they love my work you know we've been childhood friends I'm gonna do this for you I'm gonna gift my services to you no need to even you know have a contract there's nothing wrong with doing such things for people but even then you must have a contract at play if you decide to do pro bono services or donate your services to someone I mean because you still want to make sure that their expectations are met within the contract and if they need to hire someone to do something extra that should be outlined as well perhaps you're only going to plan the ceremony and not the reception perhaps that you're gonna do they do things the other way around perhaps you're only going to provide a certain amount of staff they need to know those things even if there is you know you're you're doing something for free or very little money so that people understand what they're getting mistake number two the contract that you do have in place lacks a detailed scope of work it doesn't fully explain who you're serving but you're doing the date where and how many people that you are serving and not only does it not indicate how many guests it does not allow for the flexibility if those guests go up because I know that your prize is going are going to be quoted based on the number of guests but what happens if you know everybody else from you know her family flies in sometimes culturally those things happen I know my friend she's Nigerian and she says she'll send out wedding invitations that some people will not RSVP or extra family members will show up the day up and culturally that's accepted perhaps not so much in our American culture or with respect to a contract that isn't serve you well as the event planner but you have to account for those things within the contract itself and so you can even put a clause within the contract that says in the event you know more guests arrive or there's more things that needs to occur then that will be an extra fee or to be charged at whatever your hourly rate is mistake number three as you know what happened with me the invoice should not replace a well drafted contract if you do have a proposal that you send to a bride it must be filed up with a service agreement or your wedding or event planner agreement that needs to follow the initial proposal that you send to clients because an invoice it's really going to detail perhaps you have a design fee and a planning fee perhaps you're also a florist or you know there are multi you all are multi-talented individuals with various sets of skills or you might even have a full-service wedding place right and so you can do multiple things when they hire you they don't need to go to 20 different vendors they could just come to you and you can facilitate everything else so an invoice simply should serve as a means to outline in detail the items that the bride or the groom at the engaged couple whoever it is are hiring you to do and they should be followed up by that service agreement and again if there is any any questions as I go feel free to ask mistake number four that I see and I know you're like really an attorney saying that your contract has too much legalese you know if your contract is saying here too therefore thou ware for all this legal language that scares clients keep in mind this is the first time clients are hiring the wedding or event planner this might be their first time hiring so much a plan in an event or for them or facilitative an event and sometimes it might even be their first interaction with a contract of this nature we don't want to have con you don't want to have language that disempowers you mister planner because you don't even understand it and you can't explain it well and it also creates fear within your client that's why I think it's very important to either purchase a contract in plate from a lil respected creative attorney you can get a lot of these contracts in plates offline I wish I had my site up today because I certainly dropped the link but my site will be up next month but that's a great place for you to start you can get a great contract from a creative attorney online and you can have it and put it in place and I'll allow that to work for you and that language will really help because most of time those creative attorneys are are say same thing I'm saying the contracts don't have a lot of legalese and you want to be able to explain your contract if you're not able to understand certain provisions it doesn't help you explain him the fifth mistake is that I see that event planners fail to prepare for last-minute changes please type in the comments if there's ever been something on the day of the wedding or the day there were her so we're you or your team had to go out and run and get something on behalf of the bridal party that could be Gatorade because somebody dropped the pass out it could be oh my gosh someone forgot you know I got a running get her a bride and I running it you do dirt or it I have to run and get certain things if you fail to prepare for those last-minute changes or those last-minute charges then you're not able to build that for the to the bride a couple things that can be done that can be built into the contract I think one set in the event you know we have to run and get something that the bride or engaged couple is going to compensate us or you can have there's two apps that I recommend when it's called shake like a smoothie of shake I think that's on Android alone but it could be on iPhone as well and the second one is contract maker Pro these two apps allow you to create a contract on your phone and allow the engaged couple or whoever it is to sign it and so literally I think it's best to hear that in advance so you can have a contract that's literally it has the date it has a brief paragraph you know on this day this contract was between you know your company and the bride the effective date is this particular day bride is agreeing to compensate the wedding planner for these items that are purchased on this day on their behalf and have them sign it so that that's something that you have on hand that protects you and your staff in the event someone has to go out and get food because sometimes people forget to eat I know I did my my my my maid of honor she made sure I ate I was so nervous my wedding day she was like you need to eat and I'm like no I choose like no these almonds heat this hard-boiled egg cousin where's she getting all this stuff from like you know some people don't have the presence of mind to do something like that I have to step in and do that but you also need to be compensated and sometimes what someone may construe that is if you don't have that contract or if something prepared Oh what I thought that was just a part of what you do on the day of you're supposed to make sure my day goes well so why should have to pay you for feeding me let's just that she had to run and get the bride Oh Lord Wow Wow that is a story that you have to tell us because Wow yeah she's pretty important yeah and so I mean it could even be a situation and we're you know your mileage should be compensated especially if she was really far away so I think that there you can always use your discretion perhaps you don't mind doing something you don't have to charge for every little thing however if it's going to cut into your pay cut into you being able to pay staff if it's going to put a financial burden on you I do think it's more than fair to make sure that you're compensated for the work that you do because you guys weren't really really hard you guys if you're a business owner you're the hardest working person in your business you're going to work hard for no pay you're gonna work without sleep you're gonna work into the wee hours of the night whether people see that or not trust me I know as an entrepreneur so we should be compensated for the hard work that we do and it doesn't mean you're robbing anyone it just means that you are getting paid so I talked about those apps to modify contracts on the go these are a few extra things that I also see such as you know you want to make sure that the contract you know you might have a caveat in there let's say you're a designer in you say oh my gosh I would love to hang draping we're gonna agree to do that but the venue says hey you're not able to hang draping or use open flames here but that's what you said in your contract you want to make sure that your design Clause within the contract limits your ability to execute that styling based on the venue's parameters because you can't violate also when ensure that you were dining closets your feet mean closet servi well I always tell this joke and people think it's so funny I'm when I was younger I said mom I'm hungry she said we'll make a sandwich I was like I want something hot she said heat it up but I just when she said it to me I was like Touche mom I'm gonna make this sandwich and I'm gonna hate it so the reason why I say that is some people say well I want a hot meal you know a hot meal can be a lot of different things you know it could be a Subway sandwich it could be something donald's or Burger King because that's hot so if you don't say something along the lines of the engaged couple or the bride of the groom or whoever it is she'll you know the engaged couple shall feed the wedding planner and his or her staff a guest meal a wedding guests meal then you might get something like some chips and you know some dip in some some some celery and some carrots that's not sufficient when you were on your feet all day you all need to have nourishment so make sure that your feed feed me cause you're your dining cloths is very clear also make sure you know your travel is taken care of as well some people think a destination wedding is out of the state a destination wedding - you could be 30 to 45 minutes or an hour away from your home base because you all if you do think about it if you're at a rehearsal dinner the day before the wedding really starts alive you're at the rehearsal dinner perhaps you and your staff have to drive an hour so away help them prep and then that might be dangerous for you because the bride and groom they're gonna leave you have to make sure that things are set up the day before the wedding you guys could be working into the wee hours of the night and then you might finish it 2:00 in the morning I don't know God bless yourselves and then you get in a car and you drive back home at 2:00 in the morning oh you need a hotel you mean that's the destination to me that's just you know keeping your safety and so I think that that should be in your contracts as well so that you can get adequate rest and you can be close to the site of the wedding and so that you're not putting yourself in danger in the last Clause I know it's way more than five but write it all down this is good safety cause you could go to a wedding and some of the guests are unruly some other things that could happen outside of your control I don't believe that you should subject yourself and be open to any type of abuse I feel that you should ensure that the engaged couple understands that they are responsible for the behavior of their guests if it guests begin to sexually harass you assault you intimidate you you can put either listen I'm allowed to leave if I feel my neck my my life or my safety is in danger that if my staff or perhaps you will go as a courtesy and one-time courtesy to speak with the bride and groom ask them to get their guests under way and let them warn them if this video continues we're leaving because we need to feel safe a lot of people don't have those safety clauses in there and they get into a situation where you know someone's and really people are hostile you know you never know the the the temperament of certain people and you feel like I can't even leave because my contract I might breach my contract so you almost feel like you're stuck in you have this day so those are a few extras another extras the contract lacks a model release this is not just for photographers a model release is you requesting permission to use your client the image and likeness for advertising trade promotion in any and all future media let's be real people are going to be on your Instagram pages your Facebook pages your websites they want to see your work I want to see the beautiful weddings that you do some people just like to look at them cuz they're just so beautiful and they're not even engaged or they have friends that are engaged you know I found my wedding planner through my for my maid of honor because she knew so you want to make sure to the best of your ability that you have the ability to showcase your work as showcase the weddings because that's how people want to know the quality of your work and whether or not they want to work with you and it doesn't a separate agreement can literally be a paragraph within that main agreement and one of the last things we'll talk about is a non-refundable deposit some people call this retainer I don't really like calling you that I like to call it a non-refundable deposit and this can be treated as a liquidated damages clause I know it's a little legalese but roll with me liquidated damages means it's a it's a certain figure a monetary amount that you and the engaged couple agree to in advance that is that you would that you would be paid if you are injured or not physically injured meaning that you're hurt you suffer a loss as a result of someone breaching the contract for example someone could come how are you to be their planner that pay you a thousand dollars down of your three thousand dollar fee your Bridal package and then you begin to work on the wedding you secure a date you secure some vendors and then they come back to you because some people can plan a wedding the whole wedding and get everything done in two weeks some people are just good like that they come back to you two or three weeks later say listen we found another planner we don't really want to go with you we think we're gonna go with this person can we have a refund of all our money no you're breaching the contract we're not gonna give you a refund of that money because you've agreed in advance that the non-refundable deposit can be retained and in the event that the contract is breached or broken the non-refundable deposit will be will be deemed or viewed as liquidated damages because that's money and that is meant to compensate you that you've already agreed to in advance because you've been injured because in a matter in a wedding world three weeks is a lifetime in terms of booking another client and booking a certain wedding date I'm sure some of you guys are booked out 4-8818 can you imagine if a bride comes to you for August 8th 18 and you're like okay know that that dates already booked up and maybe four or five Brides comes to you after that from it you're eight eight 18 bride comes back later and says oh I want to cancel the contract well you've allowed me to miss out a loss of profit on all these potential brides who are more serious than you so that's why I banana fundable deposit is very important some people call it a non-refundable retainer I don't like that term but whatever it's most important is you make sure your contract explains the meaning of whatever even non-refundable deposit or retainer is you can't it can't look like you're penalizing in four camps canceling outright and needs to be drafted with very specific language so the whole tip in court one flat fee of work usually does not work a sliding scale is more likely to hold up in court and this is a an example of a sliding scale that I sometimes put in contracts and so we have a question about the deposit sure so someone's asking should there be multiple non-refundable deposit throughout the contract based on the clause so based on a particular Clause should you have one for each right this is what I hear myself okay good I think that's a great segue into this slide and I think that this will answer your question so I wouldn't say there are multiple non-refundable I wouldn't call them non-refundable deposits but I guess technically they are at that if you look at the terms of the agreement if you guys want to take a screenshot of this and pop it into your contracts feel free have at it what I do for clients is there's a fee the first fee is that non-refundable reservation fee or a non-refundable deposit is due upon signing you put the date in and B amount to and then there's terms that are attached to that and says the client shall pay is now refundable non-transferable reservation to reserve a time and date of service is specified a disagreement the non-refundable reservation is due upon signing and then we break down the next payments and even the first payment for the agreement we make that due upon signing as well we just break the two out and then you can see you have your second payment and your final payment within the payment timeline you see that the kind of those payments are due on or before six months prior to the event on or before 30 days prior to the event and you can change this language if the wedding is you know with him prior to that timeframe and in the terms that accompany this is in the event the client fails to submit payment on the due date the planner should have the right to immediately terminate the agreement with no further obligation retain any monies already paid and not attend the event so I think that this goes and answers that question hopefully perfectly because I don't I don't continue to call it a non-refundable deposit because the deposit is typically money that it's put down the promise of future services purchase secure services and the rest legally are construed is just payments so it's very similar but not exactly the same and again what's most important in contracts is you could clearly explain your terms I can tell you right now if you have something like this in your agreement and you and the bride cancels it the wedding and then they want to sue you to get their money back and you going you take your contract to the to the judge and he says Wow every single time you paid you saw this sliding scale agreement and you saw that this was non-refundable each time and that you you agreed that they could already retain the monies that pay they were paid and not attend the event and you understood that they were performing services to plan for the wedding but you still want the money back the judges is going to kind of look at them with the side-eye this is much stronger and it serves a planner well in a much better manner than if I gave you a lump sum payment because if I just said hey I'm paying you in full you know I'm paying you in full and this is how it's gonna go down then what happens is the judge will say okay so she paid you in full at the beginning she paid you your $3,000 fee and you want to keep all of it the in the in a judge's mind you have to remember they are not in wedding planner world they're in like legal world so they're very they're not working with creative clients by we are where I am so in my opinion I think something like this serves you better and then even at the bottom I have a overtime fee so let's say for instance you have to stay over you have to do something else then you can also say listen we had to pay over this is the due date which would be ten days post the event you already have your hourly rate and then you could say what the amount due it is something you can fill that in at a later date and time hopefully this makes sense does that answer your question whoever asked that and yes and they have another one and they said would this be used after the total amount is agreed upon or should this be just a standard fee that you have for all the contracts you can um you can use this after the total amount is agreed upon because I know sometimes that can be difficult to figure out sorry my son's crying I'm sorry so yeah you can use this some people will put this into the contract outright because they know any understand what the total amount is because it's agreed upon in advance it might be a little bit more difficult if you are a type of planner who what's the word you might have other services and I think sometimes you can utilize that invoice is to come in and some people have separate contracts and that might be better sometimes if I have separate contracts for things so they might have a contract for planning which this could pop right in there and you you already know what you're planning fee is right or most of the time it should remain the same depending upon the package so that could be agreed upon in advance and then there could be a closet didn't contract that says you know if they're add-on services then that will be billed at a later date due to the needs of that particular bride so I think I would handle it that way just so it's easier for you so that the bride knows that oh I'm paying for two different services right because you have a contract this for services and a contract for goods meaning like maybe bosses table skates linens things like that so I would really break the to them and you can still mimic this in an invoice but it I think that this is better suited in the event services agreement that make sense does you guys so the essential contracts that I think are needed is you must have you know an event services agreement basically that's the wedding planning agreement that outlines the scope of services that you will be providing you also need to have an independent contractor agreement so if you you know hire staff for the day of or to help you that that governs that you know what you expect of them and for some people who work a little bit more closely to you who may be full-time staff I would even consider having a non-disclosure to non-competition agreement if someone is on and they want to make sure your proprietary secrets are kept confidential and if there's a non-competition agreement you may say okay well if you're gonna work here you're gonna learn what I'm doing then first a reasonable period of time after you leave you are not able to compete directly with me within this particular region now not a competition that applied to interns as well mm-hmm somebody else asked me that question and I think like typically an intern is coming to you because they do want most of the time I'm thinking of an intern is someone like in college you know they're coming to you and they want that particular type of they want the experience so online competition agreement is really mainly for employees I don't think it would behoove or be best for an intern to type of agreement I don't even know if it would hold up in court because it violates the spirit of like any internship great cuz they're supposed to be learning and being mentored at the same time right exactly and you know you have to make sure that if they're getting some sort of class credit or if they are doing like substantial work that otherwise you would have to hire someone else to do that they should be paid they can be paid minimum wage each but they should still be paid I always pay my interns its minimum wage I mean I can barely afford it cuz I'm a solo but I still do it just so I don't get in any trouble uncle sam right so in my what I want you all to do is say okay attorney Davis's told me I need all these agreements give yourself in two days to have all of these by maybe 30 days 45 days from now make sure you keep these in place I'm so that you're fully covered know I'm popping your hand I do not recommend web sites or companies that auto generate contracts like Rocket Lawyer illegal zone again I will recommend you go to one of the other attorney sites and get and grab one of those mine will be up next month most companies like and Rocket Lawyer they have that legalese and those contracts and it's just it's just not it's just not good I had to correct those all the time for clients so let's recap so you know it's really 92 today we learn some common rookie mistakes that seasoned planners make the essential contract clauses and essentially the essential contracts I believe you should have in place I even gave you some bony brookie mistakes and so now we're gonna have our Q&A with legal Bay again legal Bay's me so if anyone has any outstanding questions what I'm going to do is stop this share and I would love to see we have anything in the chair hopefully so we do have a couple okay we have one from Theresa and she says should you have a contract for services and a separate contract for design well design so you mean like wedding planning services and design services in terms of the coordination versus the designing of the wedding I would um and yeah there might be something extra for them to sign but they will be okay they'll get over it because it really helps cover you right because you're offering two completely different services there's two different sets of expectations so I would definitely have two different agreements unless there's a comprehensive flight contract template that is able to blend both of them well and I think I had I did one for a client I drafted one for a client that was a wedding and event planning and design agreement and so sometimes they can be brought together but it has to be done very well right now curse' also has another question she says she does have her interns signed contracts only because they see confidential information about her clients right that's great I mean I would definitely do that anyway I would have interns sign like a confidentiality or disclosure agreement it's certainly something that even covers that internship agreement and maybe throw in a closet you know this internship as a result it's no guarantee of employment you know and I would I would definitely say something like that I think that's excellent that you have those in place we have another question do you have recommend having a personal attorney for your business I think that it is in my opinion you may not need to have an attorney that you meet with every single month but I think that there is a lot of there's a huge benefit to having an attorney who is able to grow with your business and understand the nuances of it and having that relationship that you can build with someone who knows possibly what you need you can literally set up like for me my hourly rate is two hundred and seventy five dollars some people are like whoa that's rich other people were like oh that's not too bad but if you said that but meeting with someone like me on a quarterly basis every three months to check-in me saying listen how's your contract or maybe I could review the contract or something like that in the end I could reasonably anticipate if you might have an issue or assess the risk in your business because we're meeting on a more regular basis it doesn't have to be every month and sometimes having that consultation and even attending you know things like this it can really help give you a lot of clarity on certain areas in your business because I feel that when you know that the legal aspects of your business are taken care of you're free to be a lot more creative in your marketing you're free to be more creative and how you represent people so because you don't have that thing in the back of your head like oh my god am i doing something wrong and it's only gonna come get me Jesse that's why I have to go talk to my accountant I listen what's going on my books I'm scared of a trace but and I see the benefit of having someone who's experienced professional who understands my business right so Tonya says what about a disparagement clause against fraudulent and bad reviews and posts um I've seen that and you can incorporate that into the agreement as well there's there is a I think you have to think about that how would a bride feel seeing that is that gonna put them in a good position are they gonna feel comfortable signing something like that and it may not stop them from see either way it's it's illegal to defame someone's business it's illegal to slander their business right so if they go and they make a review and I actually answered this question from another one of my clients the other day she posted in a forum and I said you have to ask yourself this question I don't like seeing a negative review as a potential in summary and I'll tell you why I want to see how the business responds because I can tell you nine times out of ten the rest of the reasonable world can see what someone is being over-the-top and outlandish like when you read a review you know someone is just being ridiculous most of the time we never like like it or comment we just scoff and we're like come on lady you expected the elephant to come and bring it into the bridal party what you know some people have these crazy preconceived notions and expectations that are just unrealistic and then I think that's an opportunity for you as a business owner to respond not to try to get the comment deleted because nobody's perfect about you know some people have these five star reviews and I don't work because I do too and I have had a negative you get some people have five stars using your like come on is it really their great late come on yeah make no mistakes ever like come on so I think that it's an opportunity for you as a business owner to respond with grace and even say what you did you right and sometimes it might be someone else like the mother of the bride so you know the bride was extremely satisfied we're sorry that you were not but the bride was extremely satisfied with the services and we even did this and we tried to rectify the situation like my um client was saying that they had to move the wedding from outside the inside because of the weather she's not God so now you're upset because you couldn't have this outside wedding she cannot control the weather and that's what the person was complaining about it was foolish so I think the tree said I am NOT into wedding and I only tailor to children's events what's the best way to utilize a sliding scale when I have standard packages that are already in Christ well I guess my question is with those children's packages are you requiring that they pay you in full upfront because you might just need to modify the sliding scale so that there are less payments and you don't have to break that out into over the six month period because you may not take you that long all that type of stuff so I think that definitely modify that sliding scale to still accept the deposit maybe even accept the first payment make sure that the terms are quite similar and then if you accept subsequent payments do the same thing and I would even have the over an overdue fee for the over um not to overdo the UM oh gosh excessive hour whatever in heck I said the over being held over overwork time what is it never you look at my slides again over time oh my goodness over time fee right and you can even put that in your agreement as well now I have one question from the Facebook group and someone said well look does the client still have to pay me as a part of the cancellation like if the event had to be cancelled as of the weather and I think this is someone that had an issue with the bride where because of the weather they had to cancel the event and the bride didn't feel like she needed to pay the planner even though it happened on the day of yes they're still obligated to pay you because you've done all the work up to that point now it's unfortunate that the event wasn't able to be held but that's why you have a you should have a force majeure or an act of God clause within your agreement because that covers those situations where in the event you're not able to have the event come to the event because of an act of God's perhaps you're trapped in airport because they're in a freak snowstorm and you can't make it to Maui you know Barbados soever that's not your phone you literally it was impossible for you to perform so literally with this particular agreement or that situation it was impossible for you to actually show up Missy I can't see Latasha says can you have a bridezilla Clause funny but real it's funny my it's I don't know like it's just eat other clients a contract that I ripped apart she had a bridezilla clause in there and I just looked at it and I was like you can have that in there but I'm telling you right now I was a bride if I saw that mess I'm like excuse me like it would be a little offensive I would be offended so you can call it something else don't call it a bridezilla clause like you can have that and you can say in the event that the engaged couple abuses the staff rather be you know certain things are like that should be in your client responsibilities in the event that you breach your current client responsibilities meaning talking to us yelling at us cussing at us that is grounds for immediate termination of this agreement because it's you're abusing me and I don't care how much money someone pays me you know my clients I I'm not gonna be abused by you you know so I believe that that should be in the air don't call it a bridezilla Klaus maybe say acceptable client behavior or you know client responsibilities or something like that that's what I would call it that so yeah okay we have another one okay if an act of God situation happens can you put it that you'll attempt to get there yeah I think that you can say you will make any reasonable attempts to get to the particular event or you can also say that you will within X amount of dates from the original date agreed to you know host the event again if you can or plan the event or something like that so it's not that you're like oh well that's it so I think that that might be helpful to if acted without situation that happens like guys 90 percent and my opinion of the work is done before the wedding date yeah it wasn't and the wedding all you're doing is executing everything you made the orders you've ordered all of these things these people still have to get paid just because the event didn't take place it doesn't mean it's not like you can miraculous get all that money back time that would be the equivalent of me working or someone else working at a job and then the job Sam oh well you know we didn't meet our quarterly projections so you guys are getting wait wait a minute sir I did my heart yeah you guys but I still need to get paid so check my chats like disappearing okay how can you write up the act of God clause in a way it doesn't scare your client hmm you can say it in a way a conversational in waiting I suppose but you don't want to deviate too much from listing out events that would qualify as an act of God or force majeure event right because if they're if if you're too friendly they might say well you said that the act of God clause was you not being able to do XYZ not you not being able to hop on the airplane and get down here you know so I think that you have to be careful with how much you limit the language because you could put yourself into a pond it's okay is it okay you say you've got any questions I know to everyday I have questions so it's completely fine and I'm always questioning life yes take advantage of the opportunity I'm the first person I'm the first person you guys get to chat with so I hope you're having a ball with me yes first one in 2018 so I have another one from the Facebook group okay um they said what should your liability clause say on the contract I got one I'm not sure she's talking about a limitation of liability so I you make the liability to the amount that they paid you for the contract or paid you for your services because otherwise you don't want someone having in the law what we call it's a windfall judge my girl judge judy talks about this a little bit the whole of the whole point if a contract is breached or broken is to make the injured party home making someone whole means okay let me restore you to the place where you were before the contract right which means if you pay $5,000 I can restore or $5,000 to you that doesn't mean you paid me $5,000 and now you're a millionaire no ma'am no sir that's not what this is about that's not the work of the Lord okay so that's what that means is the limitation of Liability I would say the in the event you know the any event I don't have the language in front of me but pretty much he would say something along the lines of you know in the event the contract is breech or the event planner wedding planner greet breaches the contract and breach is a legal turn don't say well I couldn't perform don't say any event I cancel hit don't say anything I terminated it because cancellation terminating you can't perform that could literally be I couldn't get on the airplane and then you turn around you have to pay him all the money back that's not what I'm saying don't get fancy and get kid yeah well okay I'm gonna attorney to have to say to some of you some different language no use breached because breach legally means you did something wrong knows other circumstances you may not do anything wrong but what you'll say is in the event wedding or event planner breaches the contract the the engaged couples recovery shall be limited to the amount paid or the services paid that's how you limit the liability otherwise it just me crazy so that what takes out any emotional damages or any emotional compensation you know emotional that's a whole nother conversation what I'm talking about is you not being able to perform your services right and I'm someone suing you for emotional distress is I think who take me back to law school but I think it's three to four elements that must be met for emotional damages like you have to do something does extremely negligent and I'm gonna have to look it up now cuz that's just fun to do emotional distress intentional infliction of emotional distress okay the defendant must act intentionally or recklessly the defendants conduct must be extreme and outrageous and three the kind of must caused severe emotional distress so be your emotional distress means you had to go and talk to dr. Phil on the couch you know nothing wrong with that cuz I've been to it there burns before myself they're really gonna help you but that means it has to be that extreme and this caused them some sort of physical reaction within your body I think that they have to go and seek psychological help nine times out of ten that is not what's happening I was just upset because they did go the way they wanted to go so it's no play and your conduct has to be extreme and outrageous short of you dancing on the table but naked with a lampshade on your head that is not extreme and outrageous sorry I'm just a silly Atari so hopefully that's okay but you know you that it would have to be so extreme and so reckless that pretty much that would be a separate charge that I wouldn't even account for in this particular agreement and most of time those things are thrown out by the court so hopefully that answers the question yeah it doesn't fun a fun and colorful way okay so I see Carl says oh no Michelle she says she's looking up her contract and she is solid oh that's good good for you Michelle transferrable agreements I would curl if you saw within a sliding scale I would say that the agreement is not transferable like I've said the payments not transferable it's not like I paid you my deposit but I don't want to work with you anymore but my mom they're doing their 10-year wedding anniversary so can we transfer my deposit to their event no so put within your agreement that this is a non-transferable agreement and that could be a separate clause as well I think that's very important oh you said we talked about wedding planning motion we can't you talk about what we should look for when doing corporate or social events a little I haven't really dealt with too many of those but I think that some of the same principles apply right because some corporate names can be much larger scales and weddings frame are quite nice if you have not registered your business as either women-owned businesses minority-owned businesses or whatever historically underutilized business I think that's excellent and I would take advantage of those government contracts especially in the offseason for planning so that could be additional income so little little nugget there that's what I would do to try to get on those things but I think in terms of handling corporate events I think you really have to understand the nature of a client and their expectations I would possibly consult and network with other people who are planning such events and even ask them maybe contact their whatever type of department it could be marketing what are they looking for what do they want I would do that we are and are there that research and you know determine how can hey listen I'm starting this event planning company and or I've been doing a bit planning but we want to expand a corporate events what is it that you look for for your corporate vendors and you know we're seeing what we can do to possibly you know play in a particular ballgame and most of the time people are more than willing to share with you the information what to do is ask so I would make sure you know if it's still payments I would put a very similar sliding scale in there and think of it corporate corporation is I would probably have my event a little bit more more legally because they're used today there you see at legal which they're not afraid of whatever your pricing is they're not afraid of those things they are used to all of those things so I wouldn't really I would not alter the contract as much as I'm sharing with you all right now someone says if you have a sliding scale payment schedule set up in the agreement with a non-refundable deposit but when the client sends in the signed contract and payment they send in the full amount do you need to redo the contract no what I would do is I would I was sending two separate receipts I'm saying thank you this is your receipt for you and I'm for the composite this is another's receipt for your payment and I would make note of it sometimes I need electronic agreements when they make the payment you can have them initial like I know sometimes in like two up Saito or I would have them initial next to the payment that's another way to ensure that they are agreeing again to the terms of your payment plan and fighting skill you can maybe add another column which is part I'm going to do that for my clients moving for behind having a column and then have them be able to initially each time they make that payment let's see got a run to a meeting where this would be available it somewhere for oh that's for you somewhere for review no she's recording yes guys I am recording it and once it's edited I will have it loaded in the group what's the disconnect with the bride when you've seen the contra and they don't book with you I think that you know Paris I think it could be not necess it could be the contract it could also be the onboarding process a lot of brides are just trying to shop around some people are DIY Brides they just may not be assigned I feel like there are certain people that are assigned my business that's just what I say this is my ideal client they're assigned to my business I'm supposed to serve them and I always walk around when people wouldn't hire me if their attorney I tell my cousin my husband I was a cousin of those I would tell my husband oh they're not my ideal client they're not my ideal car yeah never really help validate that my standards with my standards and that I shouldn't deviate or lower them and that's okay that this person is just simply not assigned to my business so I think you can look at your overall process one of the things that I started doing this helped me retain more clients is have a script so if you are talking with a bride I would have a script and my script literally is me sharing with them Who I am and why I started my law firm even sometimes sharing me being discriminated against because I was fired for having a baby and working these terrible jobs and realizing you know what eating my life is gonna suck I take my life into my own hands and start this business that I never wanted to start in the first place I just my back was against the wall and it's the best decision I've ever made in my life I've had an incredible year and I know it's gonna be even better and then just one and just serve people at the highest level and give them access to funny engaging not necessarily legal legal content an attorney that they can relate to and not feel intimidated by and be like oh my gosh this lady's scary she's got law books and stuff on the wall and just like atronics make people feel really weird right and I was like I looked up before I started my business I looked up every single bad thing people said about attorneys all the lawyers jokes everything and I said I'm gonna be the opposite of that I'm gonna have payment plans I'm gonna have reasonable fees I'm going to be supportive I'm gonna be fun i'ma be engaging I'm gonna be you know all these things and creative and you know appealing and that really attracted begin to attract people who were drawn to me and so I think Paris you have to figure out what's going on in my process is that serving me well and I'm really taking full control over the consultation with the bride or are they running all over me do they even understand and see the value that I can give to them if so what can I do to communicate that so that really they see the passion my heart I Drive and if you figure that out and they still don't book you then it's not on you it's just it's not meant for you oh that's a little motivational speech that was good thanks for that that was extra so let's see Carl says transferable regarding event planning individual engaged couple signs with the corporation planner a sign goes on maternity seat court resize to another planner okay gotcha Carl I think that you should have a clause was within that particular agreement it says something in the event the planner is not able to execute the agreement or perform a reputable what is the language I use something along the lines of another substitute planner of the same like experience and level yo level experience will be substituted so I think that something along those lines should be put in there and those things happen can you put a class it's just consult and not manatee event um yeah someone I I wouldn't necessarily say Clause I would just say that that's the nature of the agreement that the agreement is for you to consult them not manatee event so that would be the scope of services you would have to make sure that is clearly defined within a scope of services so it's certainly possible someone may be interested in that okay you're welcome Michelle Tami says some Facebook groups I know it's a lot of people tend to ask someone to share contracts it's a safety knew someone else's contract as a start some people people do that all the time sometimes it's okay what happens I don't like people take five contracts and I'll put them together and you have a Frankenstein dream it's like it was so many different so we called Frankenstein agreement so I think this is my opinion it's much cheaper in my opinion to take an existing contract perhaps you put together the other industry professionals have put together and then bring it to an attorney and in that attorney can review it sharing contracts I would say if you buy a contract template for me and you share it with other people then that's a violation of the license that I've given you because I'm giving you a license from one contract and if I figure that out that's not will be good for you so because it would be the equivalent of someone hiring you to perform a service and then duplicating your service and having you serve someone for free for subsequent events I think if we look at it like that then you might be like oh I think I would not appreciate someone perhaps or here's a fitting have you all created timelines for brides sometimes some planners are very very possessive over the timelines I don't share my timeline how would you like it if someone shared your timeline all over the world with other people oh I'll just send you the timeline my planner gave you wouldn't like that because it's a violation of your intellectual property and your copyright so US attorneys don't appreciate you all sharing contracts but you can do you want to do but you have to think of it that particular way it is a good thing to start try to get a contract template I don't know if it's going I don't I can't say if it's going to protect you because I haven't seen the contract the contract myself so yeah oh let's not just says I love your personality by the way you first more maternity I'd met a I absolutely love that so me okay how did you do Oh Latasha says how do you get over the intimidation of owning your own business the responsibilities of running a company paying employees etc it's a lot sometimes same Union sister I don't know I think you know what and I'm still here sometimes when I'm like I'm responsible for all these different spokes in the wheel and I have to remember that when I what is the alternative you know for me I enjoy the freedom like today moving forward I will no longer take engagements and things on Thursdays because this is the day for me and my son I have a 20 month old son I took him to music class this morning normally we'll go up for lunch and we eat me have fun and we go to Discovery place that we just laugh and we play and it helps me remain grounded I never would have that type of freedom I think for someone else and those things are important for me and it helps really weigh and balance out the scales of all the responsibilities I have and it makes me realize some of the things I stress out about are really not that deep and not that serious so I think as you continue to go of time make sure that you take those quiet moments with your family for self-care whatever that may mean to you and them say okay what is the alternative could if the alternative of doing this or not doing this is that worth it and it gets easier along the way yes you feel like you you are everything in your business when you start before you can get some support you are the lower rated you are they accounts that you are the social media manager you are the planner you are everything you know but as time goes on and you begin to get really good systems in place is one of the top things I could tell you if you have systems in place that serve your business it makes life so much easier begins to document your processes in my trademark process I have 75 steps I never realized I had 75 steps that I'm thorough but when I document I was like okay I could cut three days off but this time for clients because I'm duplicating this work why don't I have any step separate they can come together then allow me to serve people at a higher level so I think you have to begin a document things do you need do you have like acuity or calamy on your website so that instead of you trying to figure out how to self schedule appointments that a client can schedule equipment view themselves if you have email autoresponders that can be set up and upside oh you know I