Hey, Marianne DeNovellis here, welcome back to the Six Figure Mastermind. Today, we're
going to be talking about how to make changes to those contracts.
So you've got a contract but you want to know if it's a good fit, you want to know
if it's a really nice contract and maybe you already wrote it down, you're like, I
forgot something, I've got to put a change in here but it's already signed
sealed and delivered, what do we do? So let's talk about how to go through and
actually make changes to a contract. Yeah, you know, you probably could have guessed,
it's best to get it done before the contract gets delivered to your client.
You want to go through it line by line and by line. One of my secret weapons to
doing that, shh don't tell anybody. Tell everybody, I don't care, it's Google.
Guys, use Google, lookup contracts. You can go ahead and look at contracts online,
pre-existing contracts for things that are relevant to what you're doing
whether you're a mentor or a speaker or a photographer or whatever kind of
contracts you have, most likely there's already a contract out there for that
so go out, read up on the contracts, pull the things that you like from those
things and compile it in your own. You're totally allowed to do that, it's totally
fine and very much recommended, that's how I started a lot of contracts. The
other thing you're going to want to do if you already sent it out, you already have
it delivered, you already have your client sign, sealed, it's done and then
you come back and you're like, oh, I need to do this thing or even more so maybe
you have an experience with the client, you're like, if this could have been
prevented, if I had included something in my contract around this. A lot of
contracts are what we call living contracts and not that they're living in
terms of they're constantly changing but your document that you keep on file is a
living document because you're going to go in and make changes and improvements to
it all along the way so that when it's time to send it out to a customer, you
always have the top-notch contract in your file. So you've got this contract,
it's already signed, you've signed it, your clients have signed it and now it's
time to add or take away something to it. So you're going to want to do what's called
a contract amendment. When you do a contract amendment, you will be totally
transparent with your client or with whoever the contract is with and if the
contract is with multiple people, you want to have an open documentation and
an open conversation with everyone that's involved in the contract. By open
documentation, you can do that in one of several ways, you could always get
together in person and go over it but sometimes, that can
take a lot of time and it's difficult to coordinate schedules and if you're
overseas or even far away from each other geographically, it can be really
tough to pull that group of people together live. Another way to do this is
through zoom call, you can totally call people in, zoom them in and do a
conference call that way and get everyone on board of the contract, that
way you'll have the benefit of having it done live and have all your questions
answered right away. My favorite way to amend contracts honestly is through
old-school email, you guys. Old school email, it has a benefit of having
everything documented and stored, as long as you don't delete the files, you've got
documentation all along the way for any amendments, any comments, any contract
changes that need to go through, it's all documented in your email as long as you
don't delete it. In fact, I have a separate email folder for all of my
contracts and I have a double backup on my computer for all of the contracts on
my hard drive so everything is duplicated and triplicated in my system
because I like backup for backup. If you just have one backup, you don't have back
up so what you're going to need to do when you need to make a contract
amendment is create a document that says, this is a contract amendment or an
amendment to the contract previously signed on this date, at this time between
these two parties, this is an amendment, I'm going to say that again, an amendment
between these two parties or these several parties made on this date and
this time, this amendment just like the amendments that you'd find in the United
States is going to stick with that contract, it now becomes part of the
contract, digitally and physically, it needs to be filed together with the
contract, it has now become part of the contract just like your arms are part of
your body, this is all sticking together. When you create that amendment to the
contract, you need to detail that it is an amendment and then write down
everything the new contract that you want to change whether it's the date of
fulfillment whether it's the time of fulfillment whether it's the price
whether it's how the people meet together whether it's any benefits and
features of your program, you're going to want to go into excruciating detail on
any changes in your contract, be very very specific even mindly
specific on any changes made your contract so that it is clear and in
writing for all parties involved. Once you've done that, you're going to
document that with the contract and I love to use e-signing features like
DocuSign or there are several others out there but I had that contract amendment
signed just like you would a contract, you're going to have the contract
amendments signed, filed with the contract and put away.
Violate digitally and always have a physical copy. Now this might sound
weird you know, with the digital age and everything that we do online and
most of things are stored on our hard drive instead of a physical copy, this is
something you're not going to want to skimp on, guys. You always always always
underline that, always always always want to have a physical copy of every digital
copy signed. A physical copy signed, it means you can print, it off means you can
scan it later, maybe something happens to your hard drive,
many of you know what it's like to have your computer crash in the most
important part of a transaction, you're going to want to have a physical copy
exactly for that reason. Remember what we said about backups. If you don't have
a backup for your backup, you don't have any backup so make sure you have a
physical copy of any contracts and their amendments signed and filed together.
You're going to want to have that for yourself and you're going to encourage
anyone that your contract is in joint with to have them have a physical copy
as well. Any contract changes that you need to make are going to be done
digitally, they're going to be done physically. Make sure all parties are
involved. You cannot repeat, cannot, make any legal changes to a contract without
every party signature on the contract. On the end, it's pretty simple to make any
changes, all you need to do is make sure that you're transparent, make sure
everyone is involved, is there and present and make sure it's signed sealed
and delivered right with your contract. It's a very very simple process but one
that you need to make sure you nail all the specific stuff. Now you know everything
you need to know about making changes and adjustments and amendments to
contracts, keep in mind that you need to subscribe to get our videos on a daily
basis and we will see you tomorrow.