Negotiate Everything: Protecting Your Business on Your Terms

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Ready for a game-changing perspective on business contracts? We're handing you a permission slip today - one that empowers you to negotiate every single agreement that crosses your path. Whether you're facing vendor agreements, partnership deals, client contracts, or pitch opportunities, remember that nothing is final until you say yes.

The "standard contract" is perhaps the most dangerous myth in business. Those words are often uttered by people hoping you'll skip the fine print and sign without question. Here's the truth: every clause, every deliverable, every payment term can be negotiated. We've seen too many entrepreneurs lock themselves into terrible situations - unfair retainers, one-sided licensing deals, questionable non-competes - simply because they thought they had no choice.

Buried in those paragraphs of legal jargon are critical details about payment timing, conflict resolution, exit strategies, and intellectual property ownership. Don't have a lawyer? Use AI tools to translate contracts into simple language you can understand. Negotiation isn't about being difficult; it's about creating agreements that protect your energy and momentum. When payment is consistently late or scope boundaries blur without recourse, that's not a business - that's a hostage situation.

We've successfully negotiated everything from revenue share percentages to trade deal limitations, kill clauses in retainers, and accelerated payment terms. The key is approaching these conversations with clarity and confidence, seeking mutually beneficial solutions rather than making demands. Your business deserves to run on intentional agreements, not assumptions that others have your best interests at heart.

Next time someone sends you a contract, try this simple script: "Thanks for sending this over. I had a few thoughts on the agreement I'd love to walk through before we finalize. I just want to make sure this sets both of us up for success." Your nervous system matters more than their convenience. Read everything, question what's unclear, and only say yes when it truly works for you. What contract terms have you regretted not negotiating? Share your experience with us!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome back to Stacked, and we're going to
provide you today with apermission slip.
You don't have to sign that.
That's your slip.
You don't have to sign that.
Whether it's a vendor agreement, a partnership deal, a client
contract or even a trade pitch,nothing is ever final until you

(00:21):
say yes.
And in this episode, we'regoing to dive into the one skill
that will protect your time,your energy and your business,
and that is negotiate everything.
And this isn't just aboutgetting more money, it's about
building a business that worksfor you on your terms.
So here's the myth about thestandard contract.
Right, this is our standardagreement, and it's a phrase

(00:43):
that you'll hear from people whohope that you're not going to
read it, but here's the truth.
There's no such thing as astandard contract.
In reality, every clause, everydeliverable, every payment term
it is all negotiable.
Now, the other party might notbe willing to negotiate with you
, and if it's a deal that you'relike this has to be here, then
maybe it's a deal you walk awayfrom, but it is possible to

(01:05):
negotiate every contract.
We've seen people lockthemselves into terrible
retainers or maybe one-sidedlicensing and non-competes that
don't work for them which, bythe way, a lot of non-competes
are not legal in every state, soalso be aware of some of your
state laws.
And they do this simply becausethey thought they had to sign

(01:25):
what was sent to them.
Spoiler alert you do not,absolutely not.
You should read every singleword.
Yes, every single word.
If you're not reading yourcontracts, you're not protecting
yourself or your business.
And we get it.
Terms can be long, they can befull of legal jargon and feel
like a ton of busy work, butburied in those paragraphs are

(01:46):
details that determine when youget paid, what happens if
something goes wrong, how youcan exit if you need to, who
owns what after the project ends.
And these aren't extra, theseare everything.
At Dallery, we flagged hiddenauto renewals, non-competes that
lasted years or were completelyillegal based on the state,

(02:09):
client terms that demandedunlimited revisions and late
fees charged without cause, andnone of these were bolded, none
of them were upfront and all ofthem were legal because someone
signed without reading.
And if you can't read legaljargon, guess what we are in the
world of AI.
You don't have to If you don'thave a lawyer.

(02:29):
If you can't hire a lawyer oryou don't have the funds to do
so one, you can use things likeLegalShield that's a very
affordable rate monthly to helpout with that, but you can also
throw things in ChatGPT and justask for further context.
Or what we love to do is say,hey, take this legal contract
and put it in layman's terms,make it where a sixth grader can

(02:51):
understand what's happeninghere, because sometimes I like
to dumb it down, so I know forsure I'm understanding the
context correctly, and so that'sjust going to help you better
understand.
What is this saying?
And do I agree with it?
And why negotiation isn'tselfish, it's strategic is
because negotiations aren'tabout being difficult.

(03:12):
As long as you do themcorrectly, you can be
disrespectful in negotiations,but you don't have to be.
Negotiations are really aboutclarity and it's about creating
agreements that protect momentum, not drain you of your energy.
And if your nervous system isfried every time a payment is
late or the scope line getsblurry, then that's not a
business, that's a hostagesituation, and we refuse to be

(03:34):
held hostage by anybody oranything.
Not our business.
That's a hostage situation, andwe refuse to be held hostage by
anybody or anything.
Not our business, not oursystems, not our clients, and we
teach our clients to ask whatwould make this deal feel great
and then work backwards.
Because here's some realexamples of terms that we've
negotiated and why the 10%revenue share.

(03:55):
We proposed a performance-basedfee instead of a flat setup
price and they kept cash flow.
We kept upside win-win.
We negotiate that percentage onevery revenue share as well to
make sure that it does in factmake sense for both parties,
because not every business canprovide 10% of new business.
Some can only provide oneprovide 10% of new business,

(04:19):
some can only provide one.
We've also negotiated the tradedeal scopes with setting limits
on the trade.
We've had people when we firststarted in doing trades or any
kind of contracts, we didn't puta time limit, so we had people
come back three years laterexpecting the same rate.
That doesn't work.
Rates increase, adjustments aremade, new technology is
launched, so we can't always, weshouldn't always deliver the
way we thought we should havethree years ago, and so we set

(04:41):
time limits and check-in pointsinstead of doing ongoing free
work forever.
We also added kill clauses inretainers where we this is a 30
day opt-out to protect bothparties, and the client actually
said thank you.
I've worked with marketing orwebsite people before and I have
no exit clause, I still had topay, even though they never had

(05:02):
to deliver.
We've negotiated payment turnswhere we moved a client from a
net 30 to a net seven byautomating payment requests and
explaining our policy andbranding onboarding flow.
And the key is we didn't makedemands, we collaborated, and
from a place of clarity,confidence and mutual beneficial

(05:23):
reactions.
So how to know what termsshould be negotiated is just by
simply asking yourself whatboundaries have you never
enforced?
But maybe they keep breakingyour brain over or you lose
sleep at night because of them.
What's your real capacity andwhat would make this sustainable

(05:45):
long term?
What's the worst case scenarioand how can your contract
protect you from it?
And then we've added everythingfrom late fee automations to
scope reminder text in DalleryFlow, not because we expect
failure, but because we need tobuild with productivity and we
need reminders too.
So inside Dallery Flow, we runall our contracts and deals

(06:08):
through smart proposals and weuse our pre-built templates with
editable terms so we can send,negotiate and track all in one
place.
We have a branded onboardingsequence so clients see our
expectations before they sign.
We have payment workflows likelate fees, auto reminders and
deposits that are built intoevery agreement and launch
without us needing to hitanything, and we have a clause

(06:30):
library we use Chat2BT for thisand it's just a running doc of
the clauses.
We've added changes that we'vemade or changes that we've not
made and fought to keep, so thatwe don't reinvent the wheel
every time we negotiate acontract.
So this isn't just about legalprotection at this point Now.
It's about energy protectionand we systemize our boundaries

(06:52):
so that we don't have to battlefor them.
Here's a simple script that youcan use.
Thanks for sending this over.
I had a few thoughts on theagreement I'd love to walk
through before we finalize.
Just want to make sure thissets both of us up for success.
And if they say we don't changeour contracts, totally
understand that might make thisa no-go on our side, but I

(07:14):
appreciate the conversation.
Your nervous system is moreimportant than their convenience
and you need to negotiate likeyou plan to enjoy the deal.
So if there's deal breakers inthere for you, don't sign it,
but you won't know if you don'tread.
So please read.
And if it includes dealbreakers, don't sign.
Your business has got to run onintentional agreements, not

(07:39):
assumptions that the otherperson has your back.
You should read everything, youshould question everything, you
should ask for definitions ifthere's clarity, not
automatically in, and then sayyes only when it works for you.
This is Stacked, where weautomate, elevate and repeat.