The thing with bad contracts is that first off you should try and avoid signing them. That’s for one and should be quite obvious.

However, how do you assess a contract and whether it’s bad for business or not. Some are easy to detect and negotiate, but some may seem like reasonable demands at the beginning. 

One thing very rarely thought about is the conditions under which you can terminate the agreement. In the beginning you may be very hopeful and consider the agreement to be in place for an infinite period even. As such, you don’t even think about the conditions set for termination, exiting fees etc.

I have come across such contracts quite often where if trying to exit from the agreement even if it’s with a considerable advance notice, the one exiting was asked to pay 6-month charge still. It then became apparent for the party exiting that they had signed an agreement, which in all possible scenarios made them liable for the extra 6 months charge. Silly you say? Possibly yes, however, can you say you’ve always read all your contracts and you don’t have similar clauses in them?

My point is that you should also, when signing agreements, not only consider what you get, how much you pay and what are the payment terms, but consider how, if need be, can you terminate the agreement. If you’re not sure of some parts of the agreement, surely you can ask them to be clarified, consult with third parties or try and negotiate things to be described in an understandable language.

Always, always take your time.