Ending a working relationship doesn’t have to be a legal or emotional disaster. I sit down with Paige Griffith, founder of The Legal Paige, to talk about the uncomfortable yet necessary art of business breakups. Paige is a former federal law clerk turned online legal educator, known for making the legal side of entrepreneurship approachable and actionable.
We explore why client breakups happen, how to prepare your contracts in advance, and what to do if you’re already knee-deep in a mess. Paige shares her real-world horror stories, her favorite contract clauses, and how to keep things professional (and even leave the door open!) when letting someone go.
Why Client Breakups Happen (And Why It’s Totally Normal)
First of all, let’s normalize it: breakups happen. People change, timelines shift, and sometimes a working relationship just isn’t the right fit anymore.
According to Paige, here are some common reasons client breakups happen:
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The client’s needs evolve and no longer align with your services
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Financial constraints or unexpected life changes
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Personality mismatches or communication breakdowns
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Project delays, ghosting, or failure to meet expectations on either side
None of these necessarily mean you did anything wrong — they’re simply part of the business cycle.
Your Contract Is Your Breakup Plan
The best time to plan for a breakup is before one happens. That means baking in clear, firm language in your contracts from day one.
Must-Have Clauses to Include
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Fee & Retainer Clause: This outlines how much is due, when it’s due, and what’s non-refundable. Paige is passionate about making retainers truly non-refundable — with proper liquidated damages language to protect against lost opportunities.
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Termination Clause: Explains how either party can end the agreement, under what conditions, and what happens to fees or work already performed.
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Scope Creep Protection: Set firm boundaries about what’s included, what’s not, and what happens if a client keeps asking for “just one more thing.”
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Refund & Rescheduling Policies: Be specific. Is a refund prorated? How long will you honor a credit? Clarity now avoids confusion later.
Pro Tip:
Never sign your contract first. Wait until the client signs and the retainer is paid. Then you sign to seal the deal.
What If You’re Already in the Mess?
Maybe you didn’t have a contract, or your template is looking a little flimsy. Paige says all is not lost — but it’s time to document everything.
How to Protect Yourself Mid-Breakup
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Screenshot everything: Emails, DMs, delivery receipts, payment records — keep it all.
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Stick to the facts: Take the emotion out of your communication. If needed, run your draft through AI or a trusted friend before sending.
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Use a Settlement or Cancellation Agreement: Even without a strong original contract, you can create a mutual document that outlines how you’re ending things.
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Offer a Final Wrap-Up: Whether it’s a call (recorded!) or a follow-up email, provide a professional, written summary of how the relationship is ending and what’s included.
Can You Leave the Door Open?
Sometimes it’s not a dramatic breakup — it’s just not the right time. Paige recommends being honest but respectful if you want to preserve the relationship for the future.
Say things like:
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“We’ve loved working with you, but we’re shifting our internal structure right now.”
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“We’re not currently offering this service, but we’d be happy to revisit in the future.”
That said, when a situation has truly gone south, it’s okay to shut the door firmly. Use that moment as a learning experience — and make sure your contracts reflect it moving forward.
If You Remember Nothing Else, Remember This
“Your contract is only as good as your willingness to enforce it.”
Contracts aren’t a formality. They’re your parachute. When things go wrong, they keep you safe, clear-headed, and in control.
If you’re dealing with a difficult client breakup right now — or just want to future-proof your business — it’s time to check your legal toolkit.
Connect with Paige:
Review the Transcript
Julie: Welcome back to the System for Everything podcast. And as a reminder, if you make a system complicated enough, you never have to actually use it. Today we are welcoming Paige Griffith to the show. She’s the founder of the Legal Page, a virtual legal education platform working with small businesses. She’s a certified Juris doctor and holds a double BA in economics and political science.
After working as a federal law clerk. Paige traded in the traditional law life for a virtual one and opened the doors to the legal page in 2018. She helps her clients in online community run legal and protected businesses through her contract shop, podcast, YouTube channel, and blog. Her mission is to create an online space where the law isn’t so scary and entrepreneurs can get.
Legally legit in no time. Law aside, Paige is a Montana mom who loves hiking lake time and a good game of Catan. I would like to offer a bit of transparency here. I actually worked for Paige, uh, for about a year as her va. She was an incredible boss. She is amazing to work for. If you ever get the opportunity to be on her team, and I believe in her products so much that I’m actually an affiliate of the legal page.
Welcome Paige.
Paige: Ah, Julie, I cannot believe we’re finally having this conversation. I am so excited. It’s like full circle, you guys. Julie was one of my very first VAs and taught me a lot about the VA world and like what it’s like to work with people. And it’s, you’re so kind for saying that. ’cause I feel like my leadership and mentorship skills have changed, um, and just built upon each other year after year.
So I’m, I’m really glad you had a good experience working for us. You were a true joy on the team. Oh, thank you so much.
Julie: We are gonna get started with the system reboot. A quick little reset to start the episode with some humor and humanity. So Paige, what is your Comfort YouTube rabbit hole?
Paige: Oh gosh, I cannot believe I’m saying this, but I am a photographer at heart.
I could watch like what’s going on in the photography world and like photography educators, I could just go down those rabbit holes and like, what’s going on with like canon mirrorless cameras and like, do I have the right one? Should I switch to Sony? So even though I have like retired, my photography.
Fee business hat. I still shoot for fun and like do passion projects on the side, and I still just love learning about what’s going on in the photography world. So those are the rabbit holes. I know. That’s like not that exciting. I am such a business owner. Yeah, but it’s exciting to you. It’s exciting to me.
Yeah.
Julie: Okay, next step. What is your ideal Saturday? If no one needed anything from you, kids, husband, family, work, what’s the ideal page doing?
Paige: The ideal page is. First going to like some type of workout class. Right now I am very much into lagree. It’s um, it’s not a form of Pilates. It’s the easiest way to explain it.
People would be mad if they’re like, Lagree is not Pilates. Um, but it’s on like a mega reformer. I’m very into it. It’s really good for strength training. It’s like high impact, low intensity. So like your cortisol isn’t going super high. I am not like having to run and like sweat a bunch. I’ve just been loving it the past year and my body has definitely transformed because of it.
So like. Step one, that step two. That’s true. I
Julie: did see you recently and you look good girl.
Paige: Thank you. Um, I’ve just been working really hard, like post having two babies and that’s just like where I’m at. Like my health is really important. I want to be able to like, get up and down on the floor with them.
Um, I would then like go get a coffee with a friend and like fill up my friend cup because I just like work at my house all day. I don’t have a lot of human interaction besides virtual and I just love like. Making sure that my, my friendships are a priority as much as my family is. ’cause I kind of see my family throughout the whole week and like my parents and stuff like that, they’re very heavily involved.
And then something outside, as long as it’s really nice out, I live in Montana, so anything to like ground me and go on a hike or like. See really beautiful views. That always makes me very, very happy. I’m like, I just wanna like snuggle with my kids. I know if like no one needed me, but like I need them. So like, oh, I love that.
Just snuggles without tantrums would be nice. Um, that doesn’t exist, but like, yes, there are no tantrums on Ideal Saturday. Yeah, it doesn’t exist, but I love it. And then like a really good dinner with a really good glass of wine, like I’m willing to drop a couple dimes on that because it just fills my cup up.
And again, with someone over good conversation, whether that’s my hubby or like my parents or like another good friend or like a girlfriend group where then you’re filling up like your girlfriend cups. That’s my, and then like go to bed by 8 39, so I’m not tired. Oh my gosh. I cherish an early bedtime. How boring am I?
Oh, I am. Oh, maybe Als. Oh, Julie, I’m gonna add this in you guys. I’m really into like book, like raunchy books right now. Um, okay. I love that for you. I know. Um, that’s fun. My friend just got me into, it’s, so I’m like trying to get back into reading, but I just need something easy and like, has nothing to do with anything.
So like kind of fantasy like. Raunchy box. Okay. Okay. Well, it’s not, and then go to sleep by nine.
Julie: It’s not fantasy, but there are moments that it can get raunchy. I would highly recommend Abby Jimenez. Ooh, she, her books are incredible. Every single one of them is a five star for me.
Paige: Okay. It’s on my list.
Julie: Um, okay.
Then finally, what is your go-to karaoke song?
Paige: Mm. Lose Yourself by Eminem. Stop.
Julie: I’m gonna need a video of that immediately to link in the show notes. I just did it on a mastermind event
Paige: last year and people were like, how does she know every word? And I’m like, I am a millennial people. We listened to this on repeat, um, with our like headphones that were this big, that were strings and like our little.
What was what not iPods. Is that what those were called back in the day? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I had like the video iPod. Yeah. Which I never once watched
Julie: a video on.
Paige: No. I had like the little tiny one, like that’s how old I am. Oh, the Nano. Um, but yeah, either that one or like, I don’t, I don’t know, like a, I don’t know.
That’s the one that I would always go with. I need to get better at, like maybe some. Reception song at weddings. ’cause I’m a photographer and I know them so well. Uh, like Mony, Moie or something like that. Could be fun. Love. Get everybody dancing. Okay. I love that. Mm-hmm.
Julie: All right everyone, you have met the personality.
Now meet the powerhouse. Here is my conversation with Paige Griffith on the system for breaking up without burning bridges. We are gonna talk today about the uncomfortable stuff, people, breakups, not romantic ones, unless Paige wants to get into that. We’ll allow it. But client breakups. Vendor breakups, things that can be just as awkward.
Get us into it. Paige, why do client breakups even happen? What could cause that?
Paige: I mean, people change, um, clients. It doesn’t matter if you’re in like a, a personal breakup or a B2C client breakup business to client. Um, situation like people, people, things happen. So it could be like because of you in like a miscommunication or like you’re not a good fit anymore.
It could also, most often, I would say the majority of the time, there’s something going on in the client’s side, whether that’s like in the wedding and event world, for example, people break up. Like their timelines change, their finances change, so they need to break up with you. Or projects are shifting, or client expectations are shifting.
Maybe there’s ghosting happening or I don’t know what it, there’s so many things. I could do a laundry list. Um, but. Also, let’s be honest, I think a lot of times too for any type of business owner, like your relationship just isn’t a good fit anymore. So if we’re talking like B2B world, so business to business world, for example, like myself hiring a website designer or myself hiring a social media manager or a virtual assistant.
This didn’t happen with Julie whatsoever, but like if. I’ve had those. And Julie, I think you knew about this like pre Julie when I, I think I had a couple other people that were like trying to be good virtual assistants, but they clearly didn’t last like at least a year. And Julie had to move on to other amazing things, but, and I think we ended up hiring like a full-time employee is what went down.
Yeah. Casey came on. Yeah, Casey came on. Okay. Yeah, that’s what, oh my gosh. Crazy. Um, and you guys, that’s long note, like my COO now, like she runs the company. So yeah, like just sometimes businesses shift or people in those roles shift or like you’re just not a good fit anymore or you need something different than what that relationship is looking like.
Um. I would just say like the messy stuff is where entrepreneurs go wrong is they try to just be nice and they hope it all blows over.
Julie: Um, I think there’s a lot of, uh, emotional baggage tied to, to letting someone go as a, a client or as a contractor. There’s a lot that is tied up in that and there’s so many people on our side of things are.
Really that Enneagram too, and are kind of that little more like, oh, I want everyone to like me. I wanna be the helper and stuff. And whereas I’m. Enneagram eight, and I don’t think I’ve almost, I’ve almost never taken anything personally.
Paige: Yeah. I’m in Enneagram three and then I think I wing two maybe. I think, yeah.
I mean, I, I’m definitely not like that. I have a harder shell to break through. Um, but I’ve also like come from experience, like back in the day, I’ll never forget in 2019 when I was like breaking up with one of the like most intense emotional. Baggage. I just wanted to be liked. I didn’t have enough leadership skills.
It was my first employee situation, like I learned so much from that experience and. And then with like client relationships, I think what’s happening nowadays is people are nervous about a bad review. Social media blasting the line. Oh yeah. It’s like a biggie for people. So there’s just so much messiness in the breakup, but at the end of the day, it doesn’t need to be.
If you have a really good contract in place and you are a professional and you are a business owner. Act like a business owner enforce your contract. Your contract is only as good as your willingness to enforce it, and then solidify what that breakup or termination is gonna look like. Um, if it’s a client situation, you’re probably gonna sign like a cancellation agreement in some respect.
Whether that’s you canceling or them canceling. What’s happening to fees paid? Are you keeping the non-refundable retainer? Are you keeping any subsequent fees paid? Like all that needs to be outlined. And remember kind of your leverage there with client relationships. Is like have them sign the cancellation contract if there is some partial refund situation, because that’s your leverage.
And it’s always good to just have a four corner document like really buttoning up what the end of that relationship is looking like. Sometimes they ghost you though. That’s. Happening more often than not right now, where they just don’t wanna sign anything and then you have to unilaterally cancel. So there was like some notification of like, whoever wants to cancel whichever party, and now you’re left like, okay.
But now they’re ghosting me and like I don’t know what’s going on, but now I need to open up that date on my calendar or date range. If you guys are like B2B situations, this happens with like, yeah, a website designer, like you’re breaking up with a client. But like at the end of the day. You have a week or two blocked out and now you need to open up those dates on your calendar.
Same thing goes here. So you need to like send notification emails to someone that’s like, I’ve sent out this contract, I need it signed by this. Here are the terms of that contract. Okay, you haven’t signed, I haven’t heard from you. I will be unilaterally canceling in seven days. If you don’t sign, here are the terms of this unilateral cancellation, and then you send the final one.
So all documentation and proof is really important. And like you said, Julie, just. Take the emotions out of it. Like you can get heated, especially if it’s like an employee or independent contractor situation. Yeah. Like there’s just so much involved there that you just, if you are heated and you’re sending an email, do the 24 hour roll.
Go back to the email. Take emotions out of it. Use AI to take emotions out of it. Lead with facts. Oh yes. Have a third party review the email so that it’s truly just, it’s non-emotional. It’s professional. You’re leading with facts and business breakups happen with clients or with other businesses you’re working with.
That is the nature of doing business. Try not to let it get to you. It will your first fire or your first, I’ve always heard like your first fire is the worst fire and the hardest fire. Oh yeah. And like. You’re the other ones are just business like it’s just a business decision. It just takes sometimes a while mentally and emotionally to get there.
But it same goes with business to client situations. Like the first let down is like you’re just wondering what you did wrong and you’re blaming yourself. And then the other ones you’re like, this just happens. It’s the cost of doing business. I know this is going on. This is why I have my markups appropriately.
This is why I have a non-refundable retainer. And you’ll move on and you’ll book other people.
Julie: I think that a lot of times people think of, well, if I put this stuff into, you know, a contract, I’m like putting it out there. And the worst is gonna happen. But like, contracts have to be your exit plan. Mm-hmm.
Like in case something happens, I run up against that a lot with like my digital product, the entrepreneur’s death folder. Yeah. And people being like, well, I don’t wanna. Fill that out because like then something bad’s gonna happen. Or like, I don’t wanna, and I’m like, be prepared. Come on. So what kind of clauses should you have already in place to make ending that relationship easier?
And these, by the way, the things she’s gonna name people, these are all things in her contracts. She knows her stuff.
Paige: Yeah, so a termination clause, and you, that could be a termin termination clause, um, whereby one party or either party can terminate in x, y, Z circumstance, or the contract as a whole is terminated because the term has ended.
That’s important for like independent contractor relationships. If you’re in like a different type of industry where it’s more of a client consumer situation, usually it’s like a cancellation by client clause, rescheduling by client clause, and then you have a cancellation of services by company clause.
But in most instances, in B2B relationships, it is a termination clause, termin termination. And I just wanted to be clear there. Um, like kill fees are really important too. So any type of like early cancellation or, um, you know, if the project ends early, that you still get paid for the work done. So if someone were to cancel or there was a breach or you know, like just, we’re never gonna get on the.
Same communication terms and this just isn’t working anymore. Like it’s just not a good working relationship. We need to end, but I still need to be paid for all of my work performed and maybe you haven’t paid up to that date. Um, so having that type of language in your term clause or like an early, you know, cancellation clause, something like that, scope creep protection is really important as well.
Yes. So like. Sometimes it’s just you. You have not told your client what happens if it goes beyond the project scope. Mm-hmm. What additional fees are due and now you’re in this like weird back and forth with, well, that wasn’t clearly communicated to me and you didn’t have a scope creep clause. Usually it’s like beyond the project scope, scope creep is a really heavy industry term that a lot of clients don’t understand.
So putting that language. Plain language understandable. In your contract, make sure you have a scope of work clause, like clients know what that means, and then what happens if you go beyond the project scope. It protects your time, your energy, when projects kind of get out of control. And so making sure that you have very specific language in there regarding additional fees that are due or hourly rates that would be due, and then.
Love, I love that. Just cancellation and rescheduling policies, um, you know, refund policies within those language or within that language. Uh, so it would relate back to kind of your fee and retainer clause, making sure that non-refundable retainers are there with liquidated damages for a reason, opportunity cost of saying no to other clients and.
That if they were to cancel, maybe there’s the cancellation fee. Um, and then refunds. Like, would there be a partial refund? Would it be prorated? Maybe they like paid your services for a monthly retainer and now you are able to prorate for any services that have been performed or they need to pay you.
Right. There’s, there’s two different situations that could be at play. It just depends on your business practices and how you’re doing invoicing.
Julie: Okay. I love that. Um. Without naming names ’cause I have to ask this, you can say no. Any horror stories of breakups gone wrong? In my life or in
Paige: just every, uh,
Julie: just that you know of or maybe that you’ve dealt with, like for a client or helped someone through?
Paige: Ooh. Um, absolutely. I mean, I have hundreds, if not thousands, right. A book. Right. A book one I’m thinking of right now is like an independent contractor that came in. As like a coach and a little bit of an integrator for various clients, and there wasn’t real contract in place. It was more of like an invoice and like a bullet point contract.
Um, but what wasn’t clear was who owns what and who can, um, get ownership over certain accesses to. Like online email funnels, if you can believe it. And so this integrator had like set up and it was more of like a marketing guru had set up. Huge email funnels under their login account. And so then they couldn’t get access to those and they were like threatening that if you didn’t pay me X, Y, Z, I would completely close these down.
This is like years and years of work and not having clear documentation and proof regarding, okay, we’re ending this B2B relationship, but. You were an independent contractor, all work performed would be assigned over to my company. Otherwise, if you don’t have that, like they’re independent contractors, they would own all of their work performed.
Yep. Um, so that kind of thing was like a big debacle and it actually involved probably like 10 companies that I was Oh my gosh. Legally representing. Yeah.
Julie: Wow. Okay. So I know when I started out around 2010 as a wedding planner, there was really no one in the space like you that existed. So not everyone has a perfect contract, especially if they’re starting out.
I remember every single weekend it felt like I would be like, well, I need to add that to my contract now I need to add that. Mm-hmm. So what happens when you haven’t planned ahead, when you’re too deep in it without a plan? Yeah, like how, how do you exit a relationship if your contract, you know, sucks or doesn’t exist?
Paige: Yeah. Like if you don’t have any of these provisions, I mean, you try your best, you probably don’t have enough legal backing to like completely protect you from keeping all fees paid or like being able to end without. A bunch of potential repercussions, but just know like liability and risk is pretty low as a whole.
Like people coming back for things is pretty low. Like they would have to sue you. So just be aware of that. Like it’s expensive for all parties. Any type of written documentation is better than none. So even if you had like an okay contract, but not the best contract, at least you’ve got something to fall back on.
And if you don’t really have a lot, then I would just. Say at least try to have something now. So try to have some type of termination agreement that’s signed by all parties, or settlement agreement signed by all parties. That happens a lot in the legal world where we’re representing people and they didn’t have a lot, but at the end of the day, we need to get them to all agree to something in writing, and that’s why settlement agreements are there.
So whatever dispute may be present, we’ll try to resolve it where there’s some type of mutual resolution. Whether that’s some type of partial refund or fees needing to get paid so that we don’t go after you in a waiver of claim situation. And so, yeah, usually that’s what goes on. But again, Julie, you can handle this yourself.
You don’t have to get lawyers involved. So just always, always, always try to come to a mutual resolution with whomever. You’re in a sticky situation with yourself because when you hire a lawyer, guess what the name of the game is? Try to settle this dispute before it gets into a lawsuit situation where there’s bleeding money and bleeding time and bleeding energy.
And like your clients probably don’t even want to get to that point. So try to settle yourself first. Because when you hire lawyers, step one is try to settle. Um, and I think a lot of people don’t understand that. Like, I can try to do this myself first.
Julie: No, uh, that is, yeah, that is definitely something like we thought, uh, a few months ago we were gonna have to sue our neighbors.
That’s another story for another time. And like, I was like thinking about it and going through it and I was like, this is gonna end disastrously. Oh no. But in doing that, I was documenting, I mean, everything. So in an uncomfortable client experience or. I mean, even if you don’t plan to sue or aren’t thinking you are gonna get sued, you need to have everything backed up.
I mean, as far as emails, what if they text you? Do you need screenshots? Always? What kind of stuff do you need to be documenting?
Paige: Everything? Screenshot everything. Document emails. Deliverables, deadlines, um, if you had sent them anything, and you can screenshot that there were downloads. So now that they have the deliverables in hand, that’s a big one.
Always, always, always, like, stay polite, but be very, very firm like, we’re closing out this. Relationship or engagement together based on the current project status. What does that mean? Again, there’s no emotions there. It’s just, here’s the closing. This is what’s going to occur. Here’s the payments that are due, here’s the deliverables that have been made.
Um, and then always kind of offer that final wrap up, whether that’s a call. Eh, you can, you can do a call or make sure it’s recorded and, or make sure that there’s written documentation summarizing that call. Definitely a summary email with what has occurred, how are you ending the relationship? Um, and just again, trying to get everything in writing.
Remember, a contract is, uh, like I always say, an agreement. A contract is an agreement, but an agreement isn’t necessarily a contract. So a contract, the four corner contract, all party signing is the summarization of what that agreement was, and everything was, is within the bounds of the four corners of that document.
So like no extraneous conversations or like. They said, you know, they said situations were occurring. That doesn’t happen with a contract. That’s why contracts are so valuable. An agreement is kind of like a handshake deal or, Hey, we agreed to this, or like what’s going on? At least it’s something. And so written agreements, even if in email documentation, are way more powerful than someone saying, well, we didn’t agree to that.
And then you have it in documentation proof that you do. Okay.
Julie: Oh, I love that. Okay. So even if the breakup goes well, I mean, it still kind of hurts your heart. I mean, is there any way to kind of leave that door open without, you know, pretending everything was perfect and that could be, you know, an employee coming back, or, I mean, it could be even a couple that rescheduled or canceled their wedding.
You know, bride’s getting married to a new groom and wants to hire you. You know, is there, is there any way to play Nice.
Paige: Well, absolutely. I mean, I do it all the time with independent contractors that I’m hiring. Just to be very frank, like a lot of times as business owners, you’re not gonna tell them everything that went wrong and like all of your emotional toils behind, like why you’re letting them go.
I would highly not recommend that. Like try to keep that stuff to yourself. Give them a few reasons, or be like, you know, like this isn’t the right time for the company, or blame it on financials, or something along those lines. If you wanna keep the doors open, and I’ve done that, I’ve probably hired back a, a handful.
I could count on at least one hand how many people I’ve brought back just the season or the timing wasn’t right. Or maybe we just needed them for a specific period of time. We were, or we were gonna test out other ways of going about that type of role. And then we would leave the door open like I always want.
An open door, unless I really need to close that door, shut as tightly as possible, and you’ll know you guys, you’ll know which path you’re going down and just do what you need to do as a business owner. Um, if it needs to be close shut, as tight as tight can be. I do that. I lay it all out for them. These are all the things that didn’t work.
I know that I’m never going to let let you come back and work for me, and that’s really good to have in written documentation too, in case there was any like wrongful termination claims that were being made down the road, um, with clients. Julie. I think like offering kind of an open-ended rescheduling situation is a good idea if you’re willing to kind of allow for a little bit more flexibility with a client.
So saying like, okay, you’re not gonna get any fees returned to you, but I’ll keep ’em on credit for 12 months and you are certainly welcome to use them for X, Y, Z situations.
Julie: Ugh, yes. That time period is important. Yeah.
Paige: Yeah, and definitely put timeframes on that. So people got into that situation in 2020 where they were so open-ended with reschedulings, that they’re still dealing with them if you can believe it in 2025.
So it’s really clear expectations, like if you do a rescheduling a, uh, like situation, you need a rescheduling agreement that says, okay, fees paid will be kept on credit for X amount of time. You have to mutually agree with me. I have to be available for that period of time. And if you don’t use it within that period of time, you forfeit like I am.
I’m allowing this grace period, but I’m not allowing it forever.
Julie: Ugh. I love that. Okay, so I’m gonna make you. It’s like picking your favorite kid here, picking your favorite contract clause. What is like the number one clause that every service provider should have to protect themselves from a nightmare client scenario,
Paige: A fee and retainer clause, number one, that relates specifically to cancellation terms or termination terms.
So those two relate to each other, so I can’t just choose one. Because fees that is fair relate to cancellation or termination. So having a non-negotiable re non-refundable retainer, making sure that’s super solid and clearly and explicitly explained in your fee and retainer clause, um, that you know the contract isn’t even valid or effective until the.
Non-refundable retainer is paid in full and all parties have signed. Side note here, do not sign first. Always sign second as the business owner, yes, so that you can make sure that the fees are paid and the client has signed, and then you sign. And then having liquidated damages language in your fee and retainer clause as well, that you know if there’s any breach or payments aren’t being made, like they’re ghosting you on installment payments that you will take that non-refundable retainer has liquidated damages.
And then, yeah, a really clear termination clause. It can also be called a cancellation by client clause. Ugh.
Julie: I love that. Okay, so now I want you to tell me where everyone can find you, where everyone can buy things from you. Anything big you’ve got coming up on the horizon. I perhaps know something that’s coming up very soon, but this episode will be after that point.
So tell us all the things. Where can we find you?
Paige: Yeah, so you can find me@thelegalpage.com and the legal page on Instagram. And then we have a Facebook group, TLP facebook.com, and that’ll get you into our group. Uh, we do all kinds of free legal tips, tricks, resources, and we have blogs and podcasts and YouTubes on all of that as well.
And then we sell contract templates so you can get full length contracts from us depending on whatever specific business that you own. We have hundreds of very. Industry specific variations to contracts. And then we sell a la carte clauses if you need to like beef up your existing contract or add in this termination clause that we were talking about or add in an AI disclaimer clause or switch out a model release clause for a privacy of images clause.
Um, we’ve got all kinds of a la carte clauses, and then we sell short forms as well. So here biggie’s to have in your legal toolkit, cancellation contract, rescheduling contract. Refund agreement. All of those are kind of short forms, like one to two, one to two pager documents that are really good for client situations like this, or business to business situations that we’ve been discussing today.
And then as Julie said, we do offer, um, sometimes different sales at different periods of the year. So just always make sure you’re keeping a pulse on all things going down at the legal page. You can join our email list. Of course you can join Julie’s as well. She’s an affiliate and she’ll tell you. When these things are happening.
Julie: Absolutely, I will. All right. We have covered the breakups, the contracts, and the cleanups. So now it is time to unplug and talk about something completely unrelated. The Bravo upfronts are over and with them came the gift of a new show Wife Swap Real Housewives edition. It’s a twist on that classic format.
Bravo’s Launching Wife Swap Real Housewives. It’s gonna be a series where we see Beloved Housewives trading lives with. Everyday women offering a fresh perspective on their glamorous lifestyles. So I thought about who I would swap lives with if I had to pick any housewife. And I gotta go Sonya Morgan.
Unfiltered, absolutely delusional. And drinking cheap wine in a crumbling townhouse. I mean, she is the blueprint. Thank you so much for listening. You can find full show notes from today’s episode@dallasgirlfriday.com slash podcast. Come find me on Instagram at Dallas Girl Friday, and let me lovingly assault you with my friendship.
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