Don’t make this $60k mistake

Oh boy, do I have a story for you today! 😅

As a business lawyer for women entrepreneurs, I’ve seen my fair share of contract drama and legal mistakes, but Amanda’s story really takes the cake. It truly highlights why drafting your own contract can be a total nightmare.  

Amanda had spent months preparing for a huge launch. She spent countless hours perfecting her product, hired the best contractors, and she networked like crazy, creating relationships with nearly 100 affiliates. She handled ALL the details — everything except her affiliate contract. 

Almost as an afterthought, Amanda Googled “affiliate agreement” and typed up a short and sweet contract that outlined payment structure and such. 

Launch time rolled around, and… Everything was a SMASHING success!!! 

Amanda’s sales went through the roof, exceeding all her expectations. She was THRILLED!!!

Her affiliates were thrilled too. She stayed true to her written agreement with them and paid out their generous commissions. Everyone did their own versions of a happy dance! 

But then (there’s always a “but” to these stories)... 

The refund requests started rolling in… 😬 Amanda had offered a super generous refund policy, promising a no-questions-asked-no-time-limit refund, and when all was said and done… she had to refund 38% of her overall sales. Which, to be fair, isn’t too far out of line with industry standards. 

She honored her refund policy, of course…but what about all those affiliate commissions she had paid out on the refunded sales? Her affiliates needed to pay her back, right? After all, those sales they had sent to her were no longer sales… they had vanished… 

Her affiliates said no. 

And they were well within their rights to do so — the contract Amanda had drafted for her affiliates said absolutely nothing about refunds!!  Nothing in her contract said her affiliates would need to return commissions for refunded sales. 

YIKES.

Because Amanda used an incomplete, DIY contract for her affiliates, she lost more than $60,000… a mistake that could have been totally avoided with a proper contract!! 

Wanting to avoid this kind of nightmare with future launches, Amanda wisely sought legal advice. She booked a call with me, and I reviewed the contract for her.

The good news? I pinpointed the problem right away: the missing refund language. And I helped her with a new, complete, lawyer-drafted agreement. 

The bad news? Amanda had learned a very expensive lesson, losing lots of sleep and lots of money over it. 

Dear reader, this is why I am so passionate about what I do. This is why I talk about the importance of investing in legal protections from the start. 

⚡ Crystal clear refund policies. 

⚡ Crystal clear affiliate contracts. 

⚡ Crystal clear terms of use for the products & programs you sell…

These are absolutely necessary for you if you want to protect the money you work so hard to earn. 

Are you wondering if you have the right kinds of written agreements in place?  Head over to laynelyons.com to browse our contract templates. Our new search function makes it super easy to zero in on what you need. Just hover over Get Contracts, and choose your path forward! 

You can browse according to what stage of business you're in -starter or scaling!