Write it down while they want you

A woman in Dubai makes lampshades by hand, woven from palm fibre in the spare room of her flat. She sells a few a week online, and then a large homeware store asks to stock them in three of its branches.

The buyer is warm. He says they can sort out the details as they go, that nobody needs lawyers for something this small, and that he will look after her.

He probably means it. That is not the question.

The store has a legal department, a queue of other makers and the freedom to change its mind next season. She has a spare room and a supplier who wants paying. If the arrangement ever goes wrong, only one of them will feel it.

That is why the written agreement matters more to her than to them. A handshake works beautifully while both sides are steady and the person who made it is still in the job. It stops working when the buyer moves on, a new manager reviews the range, or the store decides to pay its small suppliers at ninety days instead of thirty. An informal deal bends towards whoever can afford to bend it.

Two things are worth getting on paper. Exactly who does what, in terms specific enough to survive a change of people. And what happens, quickly and cheaply, if one side does not keep its word, so that putting it right does not depend on her being able to pay for a fight.

There is also a point about timing that most small sellers miss. Right now, before anything is signed, she has something the store wants, and that makes this the strongest she will ever be in the conversation. The day after the first delivery, the balance tips back.

Asking for it in writing is not distrust. It is the only protection she has that does not depend on the other side staying generous.