The Need for Contracts with Any Business Activity

As Erik continues to do more speaking engagements, he realized the need for some sort of contract for these extra business ventures. In episode 188, listen in as Erik explains the contractual process he has created for these engagements, and his reasoning behind it.

Erik felt the need for a speaking engagement contract because he wanted to set expectations for the customers he plans on speaking for. Erik wants zero ambiguity between him and the customer, and aims to make it clear what the customer will receive from him. Within this contract, Erik lists out all the different things the customer should expect from Erik based on the conversations he has had with them. Things like how Erik will promote, when he is going to arrive, and the talk he plans to give are included in this contract. Erik’s goal is to handle these speaking engagements the same as any business transaction.

This contract is about one or two pages, has a signature block, and that's about it. Erik wants to keep these contracts simple for now. All that is done, is Erik sends the contact as a PDF by email and gains a signature from the customer, and countersigns as well to ensure what was talked about is agreed upon by both parties. Once he gets the contract back, he then knows everyone understands what the commitment is, and must stick by it.

If you’re doing extra activities where you have to commit to something, especially when there is money exchanged, Erik encourages you to come up with a simple engagement contract. This has helped Erik already, because someone that Erik spoke to about a speaking engagement never signed the engagement, thus Erik did not block off his schedule, and no time was wasted. These contracts help confirm that people are serious about hiring Erik for speaking engagements, just like any other business opportunity!

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Erik J. Olson is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. The Founder & CEO of Array Digital, he is also the host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the organizer of the Marketers Anonymous monthly meetups.

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Kevin Daisey is an award-winning digital marketer & entrepreneur. He started his first company when he was just 23, and is the Founder & CMO of Array Digital. Kevin is the also the co-host of the Journey to $100 Million Flash Briefing and daily podcast, and the co-organizer of the Marketers Anonymous monthly meetups.