Before you lock yourself into a long-term contract with any agency or professional, start with a trial month or period. Trust me, you'll thank me later.

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In this episode, we'll cover:

Horror Stories from the Industry
- In the past 15+ years, I've witnessed many horror stories resulting from overlooking trial periods.
- As a business owner, it can be a nightmare to continue paying an agency or vendor that fails to deliver the promised value, simply because you signed a contract.
The Manipulative Nature of Contracts
- At the core, such contracts can be manipulative, holding you accountable for payments while not ensuring they meet their deliverables.
The Real Costs: Time, Money, and Energy
- Beyond the financial burden of paying for unfulfilled work, you also have to worry about getting that work done.
- This might mean doing it yourself—adding to your already overwhelming workload—or finding, vetting, and paying someone else to do it.
Trial Periods: A Solution
- Many talented and competent professionals and agencies are happy to offer a trial period or month.
- Even with the best intentions and efforts, sometimes it just doesn’t work out between the brand and the agency/professional. When this happens, it's best for both parties to move on to a better fit.
Malpractices in Today's Market
- Forcing clients to continue paying for a service they no longer find valuable is a malpractice in today’s market.
Advice for Business Owners
- I strongly advise extreme caution when entering long-term contracts with new agencies or professionals.
When to Lock-In with Long-Term Contracts
- If you’ve already evaluated them with a trial run or have solid evidence that they deliver far more value than they cost, don’t hesitate to lock them in with a long-term contract.
- If a competent professional or agency (especially a smaller one) dedicates most, if not all, of their time and resources to growing your brand, and you're seeing reasonable progress with a clear, promising roadmap ahead, don't lose them.
- Especially those who go the extra mile to do impactful things for your brand that few others in the market dare to do—they are the rare gems.
- Value them and incentivize them to stay focused on your brand for a long period. Otherwise, you risk losing this talent to another brand, or worse, your competitors.
Application Beyond Agencies
- Though we’re focusing on individuals and agencies here, this advice applies to other vendors as well, such as SaaS products for your DTC brand.
- Start with a monthly plan, evaluate not just the potential of the tool but how much value you and your team can actually derive from it before committing long-term.
Financial Prudence
- Be overprotective of the money you spend on your business.
- Every dollar wasted on something that doesn’t add value is a missed opportunity to invest in something that could.

Tune in to learn how to safeguard your business from the pitfalls of long-term contracts and make smarter, more strategic decisions.

Mind Your PQ with Shirzad Chamine

Rule Breaker Investing

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