How do you feel about doing a deal without a contract in place?

Our reader poll today asks: How do you feel about doing a deal without a contract in place?

• I’m fine with it in most situations 7.54%
• I’ll only do it with partners I’ve worked with before and trust 29.77%
• I’ll only do it in rare circumstances where time is short 16.27%
• I simply won’t do it—too much can go wrong 46.42%

Flying without a net. Most of you indicate you’re not comfortable entering into a deal without the contract firmly in place. That approach is a wise one given how many misunderstandings can occur in deals as well as preventing someone from changing agreed-upon deal terms that were never documented. If the other party wants to start the work together without a contract in place, understand the risk you’re taking on and your lack of meaningful consequences if things don’t go as planned. Sure this means you might miss some opportunities by passing on a time-sensitive deal that prevents a contract from getting done but ask yourself if accepting that opportunity is worth accepting the risk that comes with it.

– Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

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These results were originally a SmartPulse poll in SmartBrief on Leadership which tracks feedback from more than 240,000 business leaders. Get smarter on leadership and sign up for the SmartBrief on Leadership e-newsletter.