Terms of Use - Do you have an agreement?

You have all seen and checked the little white box before every service or product that you buy over the internet: "Terms of Use: Agree or Disagree." Admittedly, I hardly ever, ok never, take the time to read the small print that's in those boxes but instead breeze right through to the check out page. In reality, this is a bit insane that I don't take the time to read the when's, where's, and how's of the money I'm about to send into cyberspace, but let's face it, who has the time?

I was working today on revamping our company's Terms of Use policies and I began thinking about how important this cluster of phrases is to a small company's long-term survival. I decided to pull up a website of a company that does similar business as ours, but on a much larger scale. I dug around their site until I found the Terms of Use policy and read it thoroughly. Obviously they had legal advice, because not everyone can put together a phrase with that many prepositions, run-ons, and triple-syllable words. It was a learning experience however, because the more I read, the more I realized how much needs to be covered in explaining a simple business agreement.

Here is a simple guideline of what needs to be included in your Terms of Use:

Introduction: Establishes the definitions of all parties and main subjects being discussed.
For example: This agreement (”Agreement“) between You and Jane Doe (”the Author“) consists of these Jane Doe's Blog ( “the Blog“) Terms of Use (”Terms“), etc.

Eligibility: Who is eligible to use your services? Are there age limitations? Specific company limitations, etc?

Fees: What fees apply? How will payment be collected? Are there required up-front deposits?

Receiving/Shipping: In what way will you collect materials (such as photos, files, etc) from your customer? What are the terms of product delivery upon completion? Are there any guarantees associated with delivery times?

Cancellations/Refunds: What are the terms and costs associated with pulling a project from production? How late is too late to cancel? At what point is a refund unacceptable?

Release: A statement that clears you from being responsible for a client's business going wrong due to your service.

Dispute Resolution: How disputes or conflicts will be handled and the terms of that process.

This is not an exhaustive list, because so many "terms of use" subjects are industry specific. However, this outline should get you thinking about your terms of use agreement. Include this agreement with all job orders so that you and the customer both know the expectations before the job begins. This increases effective communication and is a safety net for your company as you conduct business.