The Power of the contract or confirmation letter

In the last few weeks I have had two situations where there have been misunderstandings resulting from a lack of communication. Neither have been a disaster - no blood was shed - but stress, frustration and time wasted would have been avoided.

I shall reveal more; the first was a lovely wedding on Saturday, when some of my talented musicians were performing as a string quartet. The contract I drew up said "Black Tie". The wedding planner didn't clarify this; the musicians wear "Afternoon Black tie - i.e. the ladies wear short black dresses in the afternoon for concert engagements"..... The Wedding Planner was disappointed. It goes round in circles. As I mentioned, it was not a disaster, and one might deduce the Wedding Planner was being rather picky. We have, however, agreed that in future, she needs to be very specific and the string quartet will also ask the question "Short or Long".

In the other situation, I was delivering a team building event, via an Event Management Company for a trainer. She didn't want the client or I to speak directly before the event. I do understand this; there is an element of trust in providing contact details because occasionally an unscrupulous person might 'take' the contact from you for future work - not me though! However, this meant that the client's expectation of the event and my brief didn't match.

This included an expectation that I was producing a studio quality DVD of the activity, to the length of the activity. Of course, I didn't want to create conflict (yes, I am adverse to this), however, I didn't want to have to deliver something that wasn't planned - and something I wasn't being paid to do. We also want to deliver a service that is outstanding, and one that is even higher than the expectation of the client!

My assistant, the wonderful Gary and I worked really hard and totally changed our planning for the session. In the end they wanted TWO DVDs... Not having the backing of the Event Management Company, I wasn't able to say "There is an additional charge for this"... However, every situation is a learning opportunity. We now all realise that:

1. A contract is valuable and is more likely to create repeat business because the agreed activity/service is delivered.

2. To specify exactly what is expected for the fee, and what additional charges there are for (e.g.) DVDs, recordings, debrief reports etc.

3. It is okay to put a clause in a contract to the team building company, stating you can't tout your own business. It is also okay to trust the supplier!

4. If the supplier and client speak before hand, the event is going to be more successful; the supplier is likely to be a specialist and can advise; the event manager is often a 'sales person'.

In my case, a 2 1/2 hour team building event - that has taken two days with preparation and the wretched DVDs that I've had to edit, master, copy etc. will be avoided in future - or at least I will be paid extra for this additional work. Otherwise, I won't accept the work.

Apologies: I'm sounding very stroppy and this isn't intended to be a rant - but I just want others to avoid any problems!