Protecting Yourself As A Professional Finder!

Nothing is more important than protecting yourself as a Professional Finder. If you are planning to work as a finder, you need to illustrate this by being professional.

And there is nothing more convincing than to have a set of agreements & contracts in place, and have a banking relationship with your bank.

 
 Agreements & Contracts

Now that you’ve broken the ice, have established some rapport with the parties you are trying to get together, and presumably have discussed terms in previous correspondence and phone calls, your next step is to get something in writing. This must be from one or the other, committing one or the other to paying you your fee. From the legal standpoint, a clearly orded, concise and specific exchange of letters should be sufficient.

With a covering note, saying something like, “I know this letter may sounds kind of stiff, but it’s a standard formality – something I must have for my files before we can finalize,” you might write this kind of letter:

Dear Mr. Hale:

I think we have now agreed on the terms of my compensation in return for acting on your behalf in finding (whatever). It is to be (so many dollars, a one payment %, payments based upon units of sale – other). Upon your acceptance of these terms, I will reveal the full identities – name(s), address(s), and phone number of the principals to you, together with the last of the information in my possession which I have, until now, withheld in order to assure my compensation for services rendered.

Further, it is understood that you were not aware of (whatever opportunity) prior to (date of first contact), and that you will protect me for my fee, whether or not you were acquainted with the opposite party in any other way.

Accepted by (signature): ________________

Representing (company): _______________

Date: _______________________________

To go even one step better, an actual contract would do if you can get it. Many would refer to such a contract as a “Finder’s Protection Agreement.” We prefer, “Business Service Agreement”. Such a contract can be put together with your attorney or paralegal that are familiar with such agreements.

A minimum of two copies should be made – one for you, and one for your principal. Not being an attorney, obviously we cannot do as good a job in designing a form that will protect you down to the last period and comma. So if you really want to do up the contract form “right”, consult an attorney.

Some greedy, unwilling-to-work finders will sometimes try to get into the act.” They will claim that by merely providing a name, they are entitled to a fee. This is why the last paragraph in the contract form is so important. It would say, “I have signed no such similar agreement with any other person(s) having anything to do with our specific (transaction – again, spell out precisely)”.

Generally speaking, if another finder has provided only a name, and performed no other services, he does not, legally, have as much as a balloon of air to stand on. The courts still (generally) consider the rule of “value given for value received.” Also, most frequently, prior dates on correspondence will protect you and your principal from the professional suit-threatener, do-nothing, Johnny-come-lately finder.

Bank Confirmations

Good banking connections are vital to many areas of professional finding. One of your first orders of business is to establish them. Talk to your banker. Make up some mythical transactions as examples. Get his opinion on the best ways to deal – with this kind of assurance, bank confirmations, behind you. If you’re not satisfied with what you’re told, see another banker; maybe still another, maybe a dozen or even more. Compare notes. Then do business with the bank that seems to know most, what they are talking about.

To learn more about Finders Contracts and Agreements, and Banking Relatrionships, you need to read “Striking Gold in the Finders Fees Business”. Visit www.Find4Fees.com.