Used to sign joint venture deals on a handshake until one fell through last March

I lost a $15,000 retainer because I trusted a verbal agreement with a design agency out of Austin. Now I make sure every partnership has a signed scope of work before I even touch the project. It felt awkward at first asking for paperwork, but that one loss taught me the hard way. Has anyone else had a partnership go sideways because you skipped the contract?

3 comments

3 Comments

keithbennett1mo ago

Troythompson nailed it, that five minutes of awkwardness is nothing compared to losing $15k. Sorry you had to learn it that way, but solid advice right there.

troythompson1mo ago

Verbal deals are just fancy promises until someone gets burned. That $15K lesson HURTS but you learned it quick. Paperwork is just respect for everyone's time and money. Friendships can survive a contract just fine, but they rarely survive a broken handshake. Asking for a signed scope is awkward for like five minutes, but losing a retainer is awkward for months. You did the right thing fixing your process.

henry_martinez29d ago

@troythompson makes a brutal point about friendships not surviving broken handshakes. How do you handle it when a client who's also a friend pushes back hard on signing a scope of work and says "come on man, you know I'm good for it"? Genuinely curious because that's where the line gets real blurry.