First comes love, then comes a contract??? As part of YSN.com’s 4 week  series about achieving success in your professional and personal relationships, today we’ll discuss how creating a written contract can enhance any new partnership — and make it easier if you ever split.

Sign On The Dotted Line…

At the beginning of all personal or professional relationships, we never like to think about things coming to an end. However, it is possible, and while we aren’t advocating pre-nups here, think about it: When you join a gym, start a job, buy a car or download software, you agree to a contract, which ensures that everyone understands their responsibilities, liabilities and the consequences of not living up to the agreement. In business, romantic or even roommate partnerships, it is critical to be on the same page – literally. A written contract is vital in protecting everyone involved, avoiding dirty court battles, minimizing legal fees, and making it easier to end the relationship fairly and amicably.

For more information on protecting yourself in business partnerships, read Work.com’s Guide to Ending a Business Partnership. It also discusses the seven tell-tale signs that you are about to fly solo, including changing vision and competitive interaction.

For a sample roommate agreement, click here (pdf file).

Read this article from Divorce magazine about the “Myths and Realities of Marriage Contracts.”

And, of course, for a sample prenuptial agreement, please click here.

Jovie Baclayon is a communications associate for the Young Presidents’ Organization and a freelance writer based in Santa Monica, California.

Be Sure to Check Out the Entire Series!

Live By Your Own Rules: YSN’s Tips for Having it All in Your Career, Life and Love (Part 1)

Get Over It! YSN’s Tips for Having it All in Your Career, Life and Love (Part 2)

It’s Time to Find Love: YSN’s Tips for Having it All in Your Career, Life and Love (Part 3)

It’s all in the Contract: YSN’s Tips for Having it All in Your Career, Life and Love (Part 4)

Dealing with those less-than-supportive friends is an issue that few people talk about when it comes to dedicating your life to a startup. Having great friends around you for support is a must, but unfortunately, sometimes the people we love and expect to support us most can surprise us in adverse ways. Has this ever happened to you?

Look at the people you surround yourself with. Are they people who you respect? Do they motivate, stimulate or teach you? Do they discourage you, slow you down or get jealous about your successes? If they are uncomfortable with your lifestyle, fight you on your choices and influence you to make decisions that you later regret, you need to take a serious step back.

The wrong influences for an entrepreneur don’t necessarily have to be overtly “negative” to be counterproductive. Maybe you have friends who just don’t support what you do by not realizing how important your business is to you. Of course, the first thing you should do is to help them understand. But if that fails, there are a few things you can do to keep yourself on track:

• Remove, avoid or limit negative or counter-productive influences from your life.
• Don’t discuss business with people who don’t care or don’t want to understand.
• Surround yourself with people you admire and who motivate you.
• Read about other entrepreneurs who excite you.
• Accept the fact that you’re different. And be proud of that. You’ve worked very hard to get where you are. Don’t let anything or anyone chip away at your success or pride in it.

You’re finally meeting more people than you ever dreamed of. Whether your motives are personal, professional or a healthy mix of both, making a good impression — not only the first time but throughout the course of your relationships — is, well, just good etiquette. If you find yourself in increasingly new and unusual situations as you venture further out into the world and your respective industries, you’re probably amassing a few questions about “proper etiquette” from time to time. Most of the time, there’s no good place to turn to ask those sometimes awkward or embarrassing questions.

So if you want to avoid your next bout of stress over making a dreadful faux pas, don’t fret. Letitia Baldrige’s book, New Manners for New Times: A Complete Guide to Etiquette should be required reading for us all. Booklist claims it “takes the ignorance and indecision out of all variety of manners-related issues… Baldrige has provided guidance for just about any and every situation that might arise in our fast paced world.”

You may be long past the basics of holding doors open, where to sit when and how to dress, but what do you say to a newly divorced couple? What’s the best wording for a thank you note? And can you send it via email? How much do you tip the housekeeper at a hotel? Baldrige covers a whole range of good-to-know issues from dealing with relationships, rites of passage, entertaining, gift giving, difficult times and communication. As she puts it, “When you’re nice to someone else…that someone else is nice back to you, and suddenly two people feel good about themselves and each other and spread their feelings.” A little idealistic, maybe, but how could any of us argue with that?

Learn more about New Manners for New Times

One of my mother’s favorite stories to tell people about me is how from the first few years I was able to talk, I would strike up conversations with strangers — usually little old ladies — to say hello and ask them how they were feeling that day. I was especially interested to know what was wrong if they had a cane, a cast, or a bandage of sorts. As I got older, I became fascinated with animals, and particularly concerned if I found one in peril — a lizard who’d gotten tar on its feet, a bird who’d broken its wing, or even a bee that had gotten trapped in the house. For some reason, I always seemed to be very sensitive to other people’s (and creatures’) feelings. I felt compelled to help however I could. As an adult, I now understand it was my mother’s own good nature that probably influenced this from early on.

When I got a bit older though, junior high to be exact, I found myself stuck in an uncomfortable world of cliques, popularity struggles, gossip and brutal critics. Never one for confrontation, let alone malicious behavior, I started to retreat from my usual inquisitiveness and outgoing nature and got quiet, for the first time in my life. I began trying desperately to fit in, just so I could get through each day. It wasn’t until high school that I found myself in a more comfortable environment and began to speak up again. I reconnected with my passion for meeting new people, figuring out what I could do to help, and began making up for lost time by starting new initiatives, organizations and assuming various leadership roles. It was then that I realized that what I said and what I did actually mattered to others. I saw that I could make a difference and found my voice. Despite a few painful adolescent years, I consider myself lucky to have the opportunity to express myself so freely with people from more countries around the world than I’d ever dreamed. Our “voice” is one of the most precious instruments each of us has!

To read more about finding your voice, including celebrating people and resources that enable us to express ourselves more freely, effectively and powerfully then check out this past YS Weekly newsletter!

Finding the best ways to express yourself and mustering up the inspiration and confidence to do so should be a little easier after you read this issue. Make sure you don’t miss little Mattie’s story – - it is sure to drive home the profound importance of finding our own voice, and prove how powerful it can be.

Now, we don’t mean dance with a lampshade on your head or fight with your cousin Joe over the last piece of cheesecake! We mean setting that perfect scene in your home to create a warm, welcome feeling. Jennifer at Gilded Fork recommends the following tips for putting on a casually elegant display:

1. If you are presenting a buffet table, create a series of levels for your various dishes and platters to add some dimension and eye appeal, instantly transforming any menu into a formidable display. Find some sturdy elements you can use to build the levels, including upside-down pots, bowls, boxes or even bricks. Cover them with a large cloth, then use smaller cloths bunched around the levels to make an attractive nest. If you are particularly creative, you can accent the table with decorative items like branches, dried flowers or candles, provided their scents and/or leaves do not interfere with the food.

2. For the dining table, be as creative as your mind and budget allow. Don’t be afraid to mix and match the place settings and accessories — you can use alternating place mats, settings, or flatware. This is particularly helpful if you have smaller, matched sets, but are serving quite a number of people. Some risk-takers have even crafted each place setting to match their guests’ personalities — to great effect.

3. If you have a dimmer switch, experiment a bit with the lighting in your home to see how various levels affect the room. Cozy corners always lend a homey feel, but remember that the food itself should be clearly lighted. Put yourself in a guest’s shoes while experimenting — consider that you might not want a bright spotlight on the table so it seems like a lighted stage for those diving into the feast (you know how shy people can be sometimes). If you don’t have a dimmer switch, place table and/or floor lamps with lower-wattage bulbs (60 watts or lower) in various parts of the room, and turn off half the lights (or the overhead lights) to achieve the same effect.

4. Candles are also a classic, inviting way to softly light a room; they offer a soothing welcome that beckons guests to relax and enjoy — and everyone looks wonderful by candlelight. Remember to use unscented candles, as you don’t want other smells to interfere with the beautiful food you worked so hard to prepare.

You can read more tips from Jennifer in her article The Magic of Ambience at the Gilded Fork. Happy entertaining!.