Doing Business On a Handshake

February 21st, 2012 Sean Murphy

A system that allowed small business to simply hire people with a handshake and pay them with a check, notifying the government once a year of amounts paid and to whom (and with the ability to deduct all reported wages from gross receipts for tax purposes) would likely increase the rate of business formation and hiring and if anything would result in a net increase of revenue for the government as more jobs were created and as fewer start ups and small enterprises would chose to operate under the table.
Walter Russell Mead in “Beyond Blue 5: Jobs, Jobs, Jobs“

This is how we do business with our customers and our partners.  On a handshake with a one page (sometimes longer) plain English description of the project goals and deliverables from all parties. We pay by check, take checks, and also accept credit cards. We are often the first outside consultant–except for an attorney or an accountant–that a startup has retained. We try to be easy to do business with by focusing  on shared value creation and client satisfaction.

Feel free to contact us to see how we can help your team find early customers and early revenue for your technology products or software enabled services.

Entry Filed under: Rules of Thumb