Wedding Cake Makers Legal Advice

Reviewing your situation this Easter – your T&Cs

Published on by Heather Stanford

Easter break – are you enjoying the sunshine, taking some well-deserved R ‘n’ R from your business? Are you comatose from all those eggs yet? Promising yourself a new improved diet regime this week?

Perhaps you are thinking about that ‘to do’ list you made in January – did that include creating or reviewing your T&Cs?

It can be one of those jobs, can’t it? See what one of our clients said about this recently:

“To be honest, updating the T&Cs for my consultancy business wasn’t exactly the most exciting thing on my to-do list. It was easy to ignore and put off. But as more and more large brands came on board to work with me I realised I needed to get my T&Cs into shape to protect both my business and my clients”

Sound familiar? You got better things to do, surely…. But do you have more essential things to do than make sure your business is protected and your risks are managed?

We can help. You can read the rest of Emma’s testimonial, and others like hers, here but she said:

Now, knowing how simple it was, I just wish I had done it sooner.

Heather makes the whole process so straightforward. Her down-to-earth approach is approachable and supportive. She understands the needs and requirements of small businesses and is intuitive in her recommendations. She worked quickly and put in extra time to meet an ambitious deadline I had given her helping me run my business more efficiently. I would absolutely recommend her expert services to anyone wanting to be smarter about how they run their small business.”

Emma Drury-Jones, Owner of At Her Table

If so, we have a great offer for you available until 17th May 2019.

A full review of your current T&Cs for a fixed fee of £150.00.

You will receive:

  • A full review by email of what you have.
  • Advice on where they have weaknesses and/or gaps, and whether they are fit for purpose.
  • No obligation options to improve them

either by purchasing a template from one of our specially created options for wedding suppliers for just £225.00 with the BONUS of a FREE 30 minute telephone call to help you complete the template, or fire us some general legal and contracts Q and A’s.

or providing a bespoke contract created with your specific business delivery in mind for the fixed price of just £400.00 (our usual prices start at £425.00) by Stanford Gould Limited.

For more information email us to take advantage of this offer.

(Terms and conditions apply – well of course they do! It’s us!)

Fanfare please…our first Guest Blog – 6 Ways to Protect Your Business

Published on by Heather Stanford

SGOL love to add value to your visits to our blog page so we have invited some trusted contacts to Guest Blog to share some tips and tricks for micro business owners – some added value, something a little wider than just legal….

In this insightful guest blog post from Jon Page of Neon Financial Planning, we look at 6 ways of protecting your business…

  1. Plan. All good things start with a plan. Think about what would happen to the business without you (or someone else key) in it. How would the business continue to trade? Could it deliver on contracts that are already in progress? If you employ staff, what would happen to them? As they saying goes, prevention is better than cure so identify those problems and put a plan in place to keep things stable.
  • Agree. If several of you own a business jointly, you should have a shareholders’ agreement in place, setting out what you want to happen to your shares if one of you dies or is seriously ill. And alongside that you will usually need insurance (called shareholder protection) which pays out enough for your shares to be bought by the others and makes sure your family don’t lose out.
  • Evolve. Things change fast, and consumer trends can be fickle. It’s not that long ago people rented DVD’s from Blockbuster, bought Christmas presents from Toys R Us and got a new mobile from Phones 4U. Get regular feedback from your customers, keep up with peers and competitors (monitoring social media sites is a great way of doing this) and network to get other people’s views on the industry.
  • Insure. You insure the tangible bits of your business as a matter of course, but the true value of a business is often the skills, talent and creativity of the people within it. If a key person within the business becomes ill or dies, you are going to have a problem. Having insurance (such as Key Person) buys you time. The business can use the insurance money to pay staff, service debt, recruit replacement staff and make up for lost revenue or relationships.
  • Diversify. If your business income stream relies on one product, one key person or a couple of big customers then it can easily be interrupted. Consider reducing the dependency of your business with some diversification. A ‘side hustle’ if you will. If you have the time. Then Freelancing, providing business coaching or attending trade fairs can open up new avenues. If you are short for time, consider passive income streams such as improving online sales, participate in affiliate marketing, renting part of your office space to another business or advertising your parking space to the public if you are in a prime location?
  • Save. Last, but certainly not least is cash flow. It’s the biggest risk to any small and medium sized business. Try to work out your monthly operating costs and then build up a reserve of at least 3-6 months held in cash – you never know when business may dry up so this is vital to keep things going. It can be difficult to do this, especially for a start-up, so you may also want to consider trying to establish other means of a cash reserve, such as grant funding, a bank loan or angel investing.

The good news is that you’re not on your own. The team at Neon Financial Planning have a range of services that include arranging insurances (along with a whole host of other useful planning services). They can also offer coaching sessions if you just want to talk things through and get a second opinion. All the services can be easily booked online, and you can even book a video call with them at a time to suit you too. Nice and easy!

Managing expectations- a painful lesson from real life.

Published on by Heather Stanford
managing expectations ACDC Plastercast

Managing expectations – a lesson from real life.

This is me.

Pole axed. Crooked. Stuffed. Literally working with my hands tied (that’s my typing arm…)

It got me thinking this week about what I can actually do despite this challenge, what extra things I need to put in place, and, perhaps most relevant to this blog, – what do I tell my clients and make sure I am managing expectations?

I’ve figured out that I can do the work- it’s taking me longer and it’s frustrating me, but it can be done. I’ve roped in a teenage child on half term hols to type a few things, and a husband on his day off to drive me to see a client – it’s all in the collaborations and the planning! But I’ve also had to tell clients about the enforced go-slow and to shift some deadlines to make them comfortable to achieve. That means prioritising some jobs and proactively communicating with those who may have a slightly extended delivery.

There’s nothing more irritating in the life of a customer when you have instructed someone to do something – provide a service – or have ordered goods – to then be greeted with the wall of silence. No updates. No progress. No product! We all know a quick call to say – no news but I’m checking in – can be so important to managing those customer expectations.

Contracts – or Terms and Conditions – is another way of managing the clients’ expectations and demands. Setting out the rules before you start to play the game. No contract can ever be watertight – and beware of a lawyer who tells you any different! At least you have some structure, some rules, and some protection to ensure that what the customer thinks you are going to do is in fact what you are going to do. Sounds simple – right? Not always.

If you want a steer about managing your clients’ expectations – please do get in touch. My left-handed index finger typing speed is improving daily!

Legal advice for bakers and cake makers – 3 reasons why you MUST get a deposit.

Published on by Heather Stanford

“I don’t like to ask for a deposit for cakes”

Really??? Here’s my 3 reasons why you MUST!

  •  ‘Your time and effort IS money’

Bakers, if you are asked to bake a magnificent cake, or a selection of yummy things for an event, often months, if not years, ahead, there are two things your deposit should cover. Don’t be shy! You should ask, and your customer will expect to provide one.

First and foremost, it is to cover your time to create and deliver the goods, including planning, shopping, and cooking – and then, most importantly, not booking other money-spinning activities around the date. All this time needs to be accounted for and a deposit will secure these time slots. Secondly, your ingredients and equipment need to be purchased. You should not be out of pocket for those, so our firm advice here is don’t take on a liability to plan, work and purchase items without taking a down payment for these efforts.

A contract in writing with a clear payment schedule, and cancellation clauses, (more on this in other blogs and to follow…) is a must. We have a template especially created for wedding bakers and cake makers to buy here that does this… and then, you are sorted!

  •  ‘How much should the deposit be?’

In general terms a deposit should be a proportion of the fee (so a 95% deposit is clearly a non starter….) I would suggest up to 50% of the total cost – no more! If all you are doing is securing the date, a smaller percentage may be appropriate, but this will depend on time scale. It’s easier to justify a higher percentage deposit if you are being booked closer to the event date. Why? Because if you have a long lead time then the chances of you getting alternative work on a date in 3 years’ time are much higher than getting alternative work in say 3 months.

  • ‘Can it be non-refundable?’

Yes, if you have been clear about this in your contract. There are some rules about online contracts and cancellation periods so do be careful if you are exclusively dealing with online enquiries. However, most bakers will have more interaction with their clients to secure a booking than simply an online enquiry. It may start with that, but you will chat, you may meet, you may go through menu choices and flavour combinations. This all has an impact on the online cancellation requirements so take advice, and I don’t mean from the internet….

Think about when cancellation might occur and how much time you need to actually create your bake – is it a week? Two? 48 hours? Much will depend on what you have agreed to make, its shelf life, storage options and availability of ingredients. All of these factors could have a bearing on the cancellation period you allow, and the refunding of all or part of any deposit paid. Be explicit in your contract.

Buy our online template for bakers and cake makers today,  or contact Stanford Gould if we can help.

Promises, Promises…is New Year Business Planning a right royal pain in the…?

Published on by Heather Stanford

The internet is full of helpful tips for your New Year Business Planning and a million suggestions about how to tackle this. Where do you start?

Keep it simple, stupid…is always, in my view, a great mantra to keep front and central.

New Year Business Planning can feel like a huge pain in the proverbial…, and it’s so easy to get overwhelmed by the task ahead. Then you end up doing nothing, because it’s all too complex and too scary.

Our top tip is a great template used by business coaches and good contacts of mine, Adam Harris and Robert Craven, in their book The Check-In Journal which I really rate and use myself.

It encourages you to list out the main themes and challenges of

Money/ Financials – what are your goals, and your monthly targets for income and expenditure? How are you going to achieve this?

People – who are your key contacts, your referrers, your targets, your spokesmen and women, your champions?

Operations – all that grunty boring stuff in the background like contracts and compliance ( you know you hate it, but its essential – keep reading……)

Marketing – the bit that’s shiny and exciting and most of us have grand plans to pursue. So plan it, don’t go like a headless chicken at it all.

All for the year to come.  You might then think about the 3- or 5-year plan too. There’s great advice in the book about how to get the best from this exercise, so I recommend a google…

If your planning for operations looks like the ‘wish list’ you write down last year, and you still haven’t got around to it, there’s help at hand.

  • If you promised you would sort the GDPR stuff but got totally overwhelmed by that tsunami of email in May, we have a solution.
  • If you promised you would write your T and C’s but got half way through and gave up, we have a solution.
  • If you still haven’t regulated your relationship with your suppliers and need a contract, we have a solution.
  • If your interns and freelance assistants still have no paperwork, we have a solution.

Come and chat to us and we can help you actually tick some of those things off your to do list this year.

Top legal tips for wedding cake makers – allergies

Published on by Heather Stanford

Cake makers and bakers – does your contract limit your liability for allergies and intolerances? Should it? Can it? How does it do this? You don’t have a contract….? Read on (but take a peek at this solution…..)

Cake makers and baker can’t simply deny that you hold any liability to customers who may have allergies – a blanket ‘I’m not responsible for anything. Anywhere. Anyhow.…’  just doesn’t cut the mustard – if you excuse my food analogy.

Let’s get back to basics – you have a contractual obligation to provide what you agree to bake with your client, and duty of care to the people who buy your products to ensure they are safe and to be clear about what they contain. This is particularly true if you offer services that claim freedom from certain types of ingredient – or you are specifically instructed about an allergen that needs to be avoided, and you agree to take the customer’s order on.

Here are our top tips for cake makers:

  • Set out clearly what you are contracting to provide – if that’s gluten free, or vegetarian then say so. Cake makers and bakers,  please write down what you are told about allergies or intolerances – have a specific question, even if the answer from your customer is ‘no’. You can show you have investigated it.
  • If you are told about a potential problem – ask more. Write down the answers – again, its evidence.
  • If there are limitations on how sure you are about your ingredients, then be clear. If your kitchen uses nut products or you also bake gluten goods for example, it’s probably wise to say so.
  • Have a written contract. If you need a template, you can buy one of ours on line …Have a good clear liability clause in your contract. You cannot by law limit your liability or causing death or serious injury, so your contract should state that fact, and not reference any financial limitation to your liability – such as your Public Liability cover.
  • Make sure, however, you have adequate insurance in place – get a broker to advise if not. We know a really good one, so email us for info.
  • Take advice about labelling and declaring what you use: you can check the food safety regulations with the Food Standards Agency website

With our very special thanks to www.rubylouscakeco.co.uk  for allowing us to show their fabulous work in this blog, and credit to photosbylanty.com for the photosgraph used with permission.

Why would you need a client contract and what does it need to say?

Published on by Heather Stanford

Welcome to the first blog post from Stanford Gould Online! This blog aims to offer general advice on contractual issues to help that side of your business run smoothly. In the first of these regular blogs, director Heather Stanford shares her 5 reasons why client contracts are essential. So why would you need a client contract and what does it need to say?

Many businesses operate without proper contracts in place and this can be risky for many reasons. You need to protect yourself and your business and set out clear expectations from the outset, for the benefit of all parties. Here are my top 5 reasons for having client contracts you can trust. Don’t forget, template client contracts for professionals in the wedding sector, can be purchased here.

1. Manage your client’s expectations and your own.

This is the primary reason why T and Cs exist – setting out what you are expecting to do as your part of the bargain – and what your customer is expected to do as well. This is a two-way street and both sides have responsibilities and obligations as part of the delivery of your goods and services. Be clear. Nasty surprises often lead to fall outs…

The most important thing is to be clear about what, when and how you are going to deliver, and what information you need from them and their payment obligations.

2. Define your services or goods properly.

What’s included, what’s not. What bang are they getting for their buck? What are the extras? Do you change for travel, mileage, other expenses like meals or drinks (often called subsistence), Is VAT applicable (watch the rules if you are not registered for VAT and check with your accountant about what you can claim back, or pass to your customer) Do you add delivery charges, handing fees, postage?

This is about being clear about WHAT you are providing, WHEN you are providing it and to some extent HOW you are providing the goods or services. Be careful not to get too hung up in the details and then end up with a set of T’s and C’s running to several pages of logistics and expectations. It’s always a balance between clarity and trying to deal with likely outcomes ahead of them arising, with being sensible and having a document that you understand and actually works for both of you.

3. Be explicit about deposits and cancellations.

One of the most problematic areas if your client contract is silent on this issue. Define the deposit or booking fee and why you might make it non-refundable – for example because it secures the date of your delivery, and what it covers otherwise. What happens if you cancel? What happens if the customer changes their mind? These two things are different and should have different consequences. Be clear.

Whatever cancellation provisions you have, they need to be tied into your payment schedule or time line. Do not find yourself in a position where your client cancels and you still need to extract some payment from them as a cancellation fee or penalty …you will soon know the meaning of the expression ‘blood from the proverbial stone….’

4. Limiting your liability.

Yes you can, but do not attempt a blanket clause that makes you responsible for nothing, ever, anywhere…. There are statutory provisions and case law that make such clauses ‘unfair’ and thus unenforceable. You cannot limit your liability for causing death or serious injury – that’s in part why public liability insurance exists – but you may be able to limit your exposure for causing loss when you ‘cock it up’. This is obviously not a legal expression, but it means you can limit your liability when you are in breach of contract or negligent. Take advice about this. You can also legally exclude your responsibility for some specific types of loss – like loss of profits. Make sure you understand your exposure and have appropriate insurance cover to protect you.

5. Getting paid – probably for most of us the most important clause in the contract!

I like to get paid when I’ve done my job…otherwise we could all be busy and make no money (not the definition of a business the last time I looked…) Your terms need to be clear on when you will invoice, when your invoice is due to be paid, how you are paid, and what happens if you are paid late, or not at all. Can you ask to be paid in advance? Commercial Interest can accrue on late payments – check the rates that currently apply – and you may also add administration fees to deal with late payers. All this needs to be in the contract. And if you do nothing else, be sure to have a clause which entitles you to stop work if payment is not made or is delayed – sounds like a no brainer, but it actually isn’t!

So, there you have it, 5 reasons why you need a client contract! Need help? You can find our contract templates here.