Each day businesses throughout Ohio enter new contracts or choose to extend agreements that they have with other parties. Through these contracts they may hire new employees, secure services or goods from new vendors, buy or rent buildings for their operations, or engage in any number of other necessary transactions. Contracts are a critical part of running a business and when they are strong, they protect the interests of the involved parties.
At their core, contracts have only a few basic requirements. A contract is generally initiated when one party makes an offer to another party. That offer may include the exchange of goods or services for money. The party that receives the offer can accept it, reject it, or attempt to negotiate its terms through a counter-offer.
When the parties come to an agreement on the offer and are willing to accept its terms they must exchange valuable consideration to formalize the deal. Consideration in the context of a contract often refers to money. An example of a simple contract may include the offer of a person to buy another person’s car, the acceptance of the second party to the offer, and the exchange of money and the car from the offeror to the accepting party and back to complete the transaction.
The importance of a sound contract
However, anyone who has worked in business knows that contracts are rarely this simple. Contracts often include pages of terms that relate to the specific issue under negotiation. That is because contracts both anticipate and address potential future problems, such as the breach of one or both parties to the agreement, and the failure of one or both of the parties to perform as expected under the terms of their deal. In order to protect one’s business, getting a contract right is imperative. Business law attorneys can help Ohio businesses work out contracts the meet their needs and advance their interests.
