Contracting with large companies: How flexible legal services from Adaptable Legal Counsel can help SMBs and SMEs navigate complex negotiations

For small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs and SMEs), securing a contract with a large company can be transformative. However, the journey often involves navigating detailed requirements, strict compliance standards, and lengthy negotiations. With Adaptable Legal Counsel’s flexible legal services for SMBs and SMEs, you gain a partner offering practical support, helping you secure fair agreements without compromising on business priorities or abilities to meet the supplier contracting requirements of these large companies.

The challenges of contracting with large corporations

Large organisations have strict policies, compliance expectations, and experienced legal teams who work to minimise risk for the company they work for. For SMBs and SMEs, entering into these contracts can mean facing:

1. Experienced corporate legal teams: Corporate legal teams often press for terms that favour the company they work for. Understanding how to negotiate without compromising your business interests is essential for creating a balanced agreement that is fair to both sides. Flexible legal services from Adaptable Legal Counsel gives you the advantage of strategic support that keeps your interests front and centre.

2. Extensive compliance and liability requirements: Large companies frequently impose broad compliance and liability clauses. It’s important to understand why these requirements exist, the extent to which they apply to you, and which you can reasonably meet or agree to be bound by. Our flexible legal services for SMBs help you assess and communicate which compliance elements are achievable, allowing for transparent discussions about what can realistically be met and what may need adjustment.

3. Supplier Codes of Conduct: Many corporations require adherence to supplier codes of conduct covering areas like ethics, sustainability, and social responsibility. We help you align with these standards to the extent possible, explaining clearly to the legal team of the company you are negotiating with how and to what extent you can meet these requirements. Flexible legal services from Adaptable Legal Counsel make this alignment process easier, ensuring your commitment aligns with your risk appetite, resources, and stage of compliance.

4. Payment terms and responsibilities: Larger companies often impose complex terms on payment and liability. Securing clear, fair payment terms that protect your cash flow is essential, especially for SMBs and SMEs providing services to these large organisations. Our approach at Adaptable Legal Counsel provides you flexible legal services that help you ensure that these critical areas are addressed, giving you financial security.

5. Agreeing only to realistic terms: It can be tempting to agree to any terms just to close a deal but overcommitting can strain resources and create risk. Utilising our flexible legal services for SMBs will help you negotiate terms that are both fair and practical for your business, ensuring that you commit only to what you can fulfil confidently.

Why choose Adaptable Legal Counsel for flexible legal services?

At Adaptable Legal Counsel, you’re working with a qualified commercial solicitor who brings first-hand in-house experience to the table. I qualified in 2022 after training at Panasonic, where I was responsible for consumer disputes, compliance programs, and contract negotiations with other large organisations. I later joined RX Global (part of the RELX Group), where I again negotiated contracts with large organisations but also many small and medium businesses and advised procurement and operations teams on supplier contracting compliance. This experience allows me to bring corporate insights to the contracting process for SMBs and SMEs to help them contracting with large organisations in a risk appropriate way.

I've been on the other side of the email chain and phone call, where small businesses need to explain what they can comply with, what they can’t, and what risks they can and cannot take on. I understand the challenges SMBs and SMEs face when trying to balance compliance with practical limitations, and I know how corporate teams think because I’ve been in them. My experience enables me to help you explain your position with clarity, presenting your flexibility and willingness to collaborate while remaining firm on what your business can realistically provide.

How flexible legal services with an in-house style can help

Navigating corporate contracts requires both legal expertise and practical insight. With flexible legal services designed specifically for SMBs and SMEs, we support smaller businesses by:

1. Maintaining negotiation power: We help balance the power dynamic, ensuring your interests are represented and securing terms that support your business goals.

2. Risk and compliance assessment: We assess compliance requirements, determining which are applicable to you and helping you communicate transparently about any limitations. This builds trust and aligns the agreement with your business capabilities, a key part of our flexible legal services approach.

3. Clear alignment with Supplier Codes of Conduct: Navigating supplier codes of conduct can be complex. Our flexible legal services for SMBs help you align where practical and clearly communicate to the corporate legal team how and to what extent you can comply.

4. Focused responsibilities and payment security: Our flexible legal services prioritise clear, manageable responsibilities and fair payment terms, protecting your cash flow and operational stability.

5. Realistic commitments only: A critical part of any successful contract is ensuring your business can realistically meet all obligations. We review each term with a focus on practicality, helping you agree only to those responsibilities you can fulfil confidently, minimising risk and ensuring sustainable growth.

Partner with Adaptable Legal Counsel for flexible legal services

Securing a contract with a large company is a significant opportunity, but it requires strategic negotiation and a clear understanding of your obligations. Adaptable Legal Counsel’s flexible legal services for SMBs and SMEs provide the support you need to navigate these agreements, protect your business’s interests, and ensure sustainable growth.

For more information, please visit our website to discuss how our flexible legal services can help your business succeed in partnerships with larger clients.

To book a free, no-obligation initial chat book here.