Steven Robbins here. Welcome to the Get It Done Guys quick and dirty tips to work less and do more.

Today's topic is building close business relationships. The quick and dirty tip is to get it in writing.

I do business on a handshake, and I've always liked the idea that a handshake is all you need.

Then I learned that ninjas can kill you 16 different ways using only a handshake.

No one backs out of a handshake deal with a ninja.

Or a pirate, actually.

Unless you're a ninja or a pirate, when you're putting together a joint project, write down

the terms in a simple document. Why do you need a

contract? If you trust them, why do you need a contract? You hear this when billionaires discuss

prenuptial agreements with their spouses to be. We're in love. If it's true love, surely we don't

need all that icky legal stuff. Wake up and smell the coffee.

Today's true love can be tomorrow's tell-all story in a popular gossip rag.

You need a contract because it's the contract that makes it possible to trust.

Trust is a wonderful emotion that has nothing to do with law.

Contracts are legal devices, not emotional devices.

They serve a different purpose. A contract forces you and them to resolve all the ambiguities,

consider the worst case scenarios, and address them explicitly. Once you've been through that

exercise, you can trust without reservation, because you've nailed all the details. You may be

assuming things based on friendship. They're designing my website for free. Uh, not necessarily.

There are two kinds of friends who do things for you. The ones who are sharks and assume you're

paying full rates, and the ones who let themselves get walked all over. You don't want to do

business with either

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