February 7, 2009
Posted by Ryan Graves
Dealing with a sticky partnership
I’ve recently been thinking proactively about what to do when a partnership going wrong. I’m not talking about a co-founder, or good friend I’m talking about a client partnership. You should already have a agreement/contract in writing, I won’t even dive into the importance of that. These are some thoughts for after the fact. Note: I’ve not had to use any of the below statements with partners, I’ve been lucky. So far.
1)
Call out their good nature…
“Dear client, we appreciate the work we’ve done together, but we noticed that you’ve not yet _________. If you need any help on the matter, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.”
2)
Call out their integrity…
“Dear client, You have agreed to ________. We signed the agreement in good faith and will honor our side. If you think we need to modify the contract, we would be happy to discuss a modified deal. We understand you concern with _________, and would be willing to discuss a price that is fair for both parties.”
3)
Call out their sense of the law….
“Dear client, It is clear our signed contract requires you to ______. We think it is clear you are violating the terms of the agreement. Please let us know if you think the terms of the contract are unclear.”
4)
Add to the old agreement, don’t change it…
“Dear client, since there has been no communication, we assume that you wish to renegotiate the original agreement. Our price for the service we’ve provided is $1,000 per day, retroactive to the time we started working with Company X, plus $100/hr * 50hrs of time spent implementing our product with your service.”
5)
At last resort, you’ll have to use the legal system…
Call a lawyer. Hopefully you trust them, it could get real expensive.
Usually people aren’t trying to screw you and are more than willing to diplomatically work out the misunderstanding. Don’t embarrass or threaten before you have to or it could get ugly for no reason.
