Control Freak

More often than I'd like, clients find me after their deals have gone south and the other side has them in a chokehold. As I examine their deals post-mortem, I can usually trace the cause of their problems back to the original negotiations. For whatever reason, they cut a deal that left them exposed.

Of course, you can't shield yourself against every possible mishap. But there are ways to structure your deal from the get-go to protect yourself after you sign on the dotted line.

A speaker and attorney in Los Angeles, Marc Diener is the author of Deal Power: 6 Foolproof Steps to Making Deals of Any Size(Owl Books/Henry Holt). You can reach him at MarcDiener@aol.com.

This article was originally published in the September 2000 print edition of Entrepreneur with the headline: Control Freak.