Don't take anything for granted in business. Whether you are running your business as a part time or fully engaged, always ensure you take the necessary steps to getting your business documents.

Your business doesn't have to be big to be registered in CAC. You don't have to be Chevron to have employment contracts in place. You need to understand what a Non Disclosure agreement is in your business so you won't cry that a company you submitted a proposal to has stolen your idea.

This was exactly what happened to me few years ago...

I was a cleaning contractor for a major hotel in Imo State. My company then, RicherLife Cleaning Services was responsible for the daily cleaning and maintenance of the hotel for some years.

One day, I had a visitor and I asked her to join me in the hotel restaurant. We ordered for food and chatted away while we waited for the food to arrive. 30 minutes passed. No food yet. The chat was slowing down.My visitor was undoubtedly hungry. Topic don dey finish for my mouth. Still no food. 45 mins passed. No food still. Then I told her, "Am gonna take over the management of that kitchen". I was pissed.

Now this is me. This is how I get my contracts. I see a pain point and I pounce on it. Same thing happened with their housekeeping and I offered them a better option. They had lazy housekeepers, and I pointed it out to the hotel management, who were already fed up at the point. So it was a welcome relief to them. Now I was gonna do it with the kitchen.

The food later came, but my mind was already long gone. To me, I am already in control of the kitchen.

The next morning, I walked into the Chairman's office and proposed my idea to him. I gave him salient reasons why I should take over the management of the kitchen. He was impressed by my proposal. Besides I was doing an excellent job with the cleaning contract. When asked how I hoped to proceed. I naively told them I had plans to send my manager to calabar to poach the best chefs from 5 hotels...

He smiled and gave me a go ahead..

I immediately summoned my manager, and sent him to Calabar. A week later, he came back with 5 professional cooks. I asked for a test period of one week for my new recruits to handle the kitchen while I lodged them in the hotel. It was agreed upon.

At this point, I was so excited to see my naivety.

My cooks excelled after one week. I was getting ready to meet the management at the negotiation table for contract talks.

But I noticed something was amiss...

I called my cooks for a meeting. They didn't show up. A day later, one left for Calabar without telling me.

I was confused. What is wrong here.

Then it hit me. The hotel had gone behind my back to offer them employment contracts and left me in the cold. I had no signed agreement in place. My costs gone. Idea stolen and my staff poached. The poacher has been poached! lol

I couldn't do anything. In fact my cleaning contract with them was also affected due to some irregularities with legal documentations.

I learnt my lessons.

Now in Pukena, we are smarter. We have companies who call in for us to recruit formal and informal staff for them. Of course once beaten, twice shy. You must sign every agreement we present to you sir, or else, no deal.

Hotels are usually the culprits here. They try to use concierge services like Pukena to get their manpower needs and discard you afterwards. I turned down such move just this morning. The reasons we are more detailed now is that, we are responsible for every staff we send to your company. That's a lot of responsibility. Anything goes wrong, you blame us. So why not allow us do our due diligence and sign the necessary agreements before deployment? You can't eat your cake and have it. I understand your needs are urgent but we won't get carried away by your urgency. Better we follow the due process.

We supply artisans and other informal staff to homes and offices. This is our business and the sensitivity of the business requires that we have certain insurance measures in place.

Imagine if a Pukena Nanny goes into a client's home and steals fro the client...and disappears. Who bears the brunt?

So if we ask you to sign something, please sign. We also go extra mile to verify the background of every contractor on our platform before deployment.

So here in my point..

Take your business documentations seriously. It can save you millions in damages.

We have a unique service category in Pukena called Pukena Legal services, that helps business owners get certain legal documentations. You can get your certificate of incorporation in less than 2 weeks. Get started now.

Check other services you might need, https://pukena.ng/services-category/legal-services