Writing terms and conditions for your business

Terms and conditions are a set of rules and statements that possible users of your service will have to follow and agree to if they wish to use the service. Establishing terms and conditions is an important aspect of business, and any time you are providing a service to other people or organizations, you should require their acceptance of your terms and conditions. In order to write good terms and conditions, you will have to understand when they are useful, what types of provisions will apply to your situation, where they should be located, and how they will be accessed. Once you have a good grasp of your personal situation, you will begin writing the various provisions and clauses that will make up your terms and conditions. Follow the directions below to create a personalized set of terms and conditions.

Steps Edit

Part One of Two:
Preparing to Write Your Terms and Conditions Edit

Determine if you have the need for terms and conditions. If you are going to offer a service and that service will be available to a large number of people, you should consider drafting and implementing a series of terms and conditions. Some of the most common services people and companies offer that lend themselves well to terms and conditions include websites and mobile phone apps. These types of services are also available to the public at-large, which makes the use of terms and conditions particularly useful. If the service you are offering will not be available to a large number of people (e.g. consulting or other types of employment type relationships), consider using a more traditional and individualistic contract instead of terms and conditions. Some of the most common reasons for having terms and conditions include:

• Protecting your business. [1] Simply put, if you do not specify terms and conditions, you put yourself at risk of user uncertainty and misunderstanding. [2]
• Preventing abuses. [3] Terms and conditions are legally binding and can therefore act to prevent users of your service from abusing or misusing that service. [4] The terms and conditions will lay out the guidelines of using your service, as well as what will happen if they do not follow your guidelines. [5]
• Owning your content. [6] The content your provide users will likely be yours and you will want to protect that content from theft or misuse. [7] Terms and conditions are a great way to convey that to your users.
• Limiting liability. [8] Nobody is perfect and you are bound to have errors in your content. [9] Terms and conditions are a great way to warn your users that you will not be held responsible for such errors. [10]

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Assess the types of provisions you will need to include in your terms and conditions. Depending on what type of service you are providing, you will want to tailor your terms and conditions so they protect your particular situation. Terms and conditions are an incredibly powerful tool and you want to make sure you get the most out of them. For example:

• If you are collecting personal information from your users (e.g. credit card information, names, addresses), you will need to include a privacy policy that discusses how that private information will be used, stored, and disseminated. [11]
• If you are offering users accounts or subscriptions, you should be sure to explain the rules of those accounts and subscriptions, including how they can be terminated if abused. [12]

Decide where your terms and conditions will be located and how they will be accessed. The last step in preparing to write your terms and conditions is contemplating where the information will be located and how users will access it. [13] This is important to consider before you write your terms and conditions because your answers to these questions will dictate how the terms and conditions will be written.

• Think about putting your terms and conditions in a location that is easily accessible, possibly even in a position where users are required to access it. [14] For example, if your service is a website offering goods to buy, you may want to have your terms and conditions pop up as soon as a new user accesses your website for the first time. If you are doing this, you will want to format your terms and conditions with a clear and enticing title and initial statement so users will want to read it.
• Think about requiring your users to actively accept your terms and conditions before they can use your service. [15] For example, require your users to click or check off a box that says “I Have Read and Accept the Terms and Conditions” before they are allowed to use your website or other service. [16]

Tips Edit

Read through various terms and conditions you find to get ideas about how to structure your terms and conditions. For example, when you sign up to use Facebook or iTunes, instead of simply agreeing to the terms and conditions read through them. This will give you an idea of what different services include, how they structure their terms and conditions, and what type of language they use.

Consider asking an attorney to look over your terms and conditions and ask if they will give you some feedback.

While most people do not read terms and conditions, it does not mean they are not necessary. Terms and conditions offer a powerful legal tool for your service and you should not forgo writing and implementing them simply because people do not read them.

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