Once your company is up and running, you will be interacting with many people: employees; vendors; customers; contractors; and, most likely, regulatory agencies. Associated with all of these is paperwork; in the case of employees, vendors, customers and contractors there should be formal, written agreements, and in the case of regulatory agencies there are compliance forms. You and your lawyer should develop written agreements to govern these relationships.

Written Agreements

When you start up a company, you should have written agreements with each subset of people you deal with - employees and consultants, vendors, partners and customers. For employees, basic documentation includes:

	Employment Agreements (or Consultant/Independent Contractor Agreements)
	Pension, Bonus, Profit-Sharing, Deferred Compensation, Retirement Plans
	Stock Incentive Plan
	Option Agreements
	Non-Disclosure, Assignment of Inventions Agreement (and Non-Competition) Agreement
	Health & Dental Plans, Disability and Life Insurance
	Employee Manual

For vendors who provide you with telephone service, utilities, equipment rental and software licenses, you should also have written, signed agreements. Partner agreements could include:

	System Integrator Agreements
	Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) Agreements
	Marketing and Distributorship Agreements
	Web Site Development Agreements
	Web Hosting Agreements
	Specialized Technology and Software Licensing Agreements
	Joint Development/Marketing Agreements
	Subcontractor Agreements

Customer agreements might include:

	Consulting/Service Agreements
	Software and Technology License Agreements
	Terms and Conditions for Sales of Goods (Invoices)

The types of agreements you need depend on your business. What is most important is a qualified attorney to help you draw them up.