The legal side of the outdoor industry

By Emma Peterson. 

Learn how a simple documentation system can save you a huge legal headache down the line. 

Across the outdoor industry, whether you work on landscaping design, pool maintenance or some other area outside, there is one consistent challenge – navigating the legal side of operating a business. To learn about how to handle the legal details in a professional way that protects you and your company, we invited John Kenney of Cotney Consulting Group to OutdoorCoffeeShop™ for an episode of From the Ground Up all about the legal side of the outdoor industry.  

John’s primary legal recommendation for contractors and professionals is to make sure your documentation is in order. He elaborated:  

I see a lot of contractors run into issues because they don’t have a good documentation practice in place. There are two common scenarios. The first one is that everything gets documented after there's a problem. The other is that things live in unofficial spots, like test message, or worse, in someone’s memory. 

And while it is understandable that things happen on a job quickly and without the time to fill out a form or report immediately, you have to make it a priority to go back and redocument it so that there is a paper trail to reference. “You have to have an organized system. One of the most valuable things you can do is put a simple checklist together of exactly how your documentation flow is going to go,” John explained. “Because if any conflicts come up, it always goes back to the best paper wins. You don’t want to have to scramble to figure out what happened when a dispute hits, you want to be able to pull everything out and tell a story of exactly what happened.”  

What should that story you showcase include? John said that a strong claim will be able to answer three questions clearly:  

1. What changed?  
2. How did it impact your work?  
3. What did it cost? 

In John's words, "The strongest claims have to be timeline based, supported with documentation and clearly tied to contract language. That's the key.” In other words, building a strong, credible claim in the face of dispute is directly dependent on the processes and organization you have in place for documentation.  

How do you build that system? It’s a process. John explained:  

My advice is really keep it simple. Don't try to fix everything at once, because that will really overwhelm you. So, what I'd like you to do is create a daily report first. That report should cover the weather of the day, where you were that day, what got done, how it went and any issues that cropped up. Additionally, you don't want to forget to track visitors to the site. It’s very important to write on there, so-and-so showed up and we had a conversation about xyz.  

With that report alone, you can often answer those three claim questions already. But to make your case solid, John says the other documents to prioritize are your notice processes and change order forms. He elaborated, “You want to make sure a simple notice process is in order and your team understands it. This is a process determined by your contract that outlines how you notify your client, and they notify you of changes. And speaking of those changes, you want to have your change order forms ready up front with the full process so that you can get your change orders handled immediately.” 

By having that notice process in order and change order documentation system in place, you will have all the legal paperwork needed to back up your daily report and build a strong, credible claim. And then, when a problem does arise, as they always seem to do in this industry, you’re prepared. As John put it, “If you do all those things and you do them as quickly and up front as you can, it's going to make your job and your company run a lot smoother in the long run.” 

Want to learn more about managing the legal side of your business? Listen to the whole episode or Watch the recorded conversation with John!