Room to be wrong

The half you can know.

When it's your money, you need room to be wrong. Start with the bills you have already agreed to pay.

This made-up shop cannot know next month's sales. It can read its printer's terms and decide whether to pay to change them.

Orders next month

Next month's orders are unknown.

The printer agreement

The shop has agreed to pay €180 a week for twelve weeks after asking to leave. That adds up to €2,160.

The bill is already in the agreement. Seeing it now gives the shop a chance to ask for different terms.

When orders stop

The orders stop. The bill keeps coming.

Ströma Prints owes its printer at least €180 a week. Stop the orders and see what happens to the bill.

Ströma Prints and its printer

Orders coming into the shop

Orders are coming in. The printer is owed at least €180 a week.

What the shop agreed to pay

Original printer agreement

Minimum each week
€180
Notice period
12 weeks

Due every week, even with no orders.

To leave, the shop must give notice and pay for twelve more weeks.

The notice period starts when the shop asks to leave. Until then, the weekly bills continue.

The agreement

A shorter notice period means less to pay.

For €120, the printer offers three weeks of notice instead of twelve. Compare what would remain to pay.

Payments after giving noticeEach box is one week at €180

Original agreement: twelve weeks of notice.

Still to pay€2,160
Week 1€180
Week 2€180
Week 3€180
Week 4€180
Week 5€180
Week 6€180
Week 7€180
Week 8€180
Week 9€180
Week 10€180
Week 11€180
Week 12€180

Notice givenPayments end at week 12

With the original terms, leaving means twelve more payments: €2,160.

Compare the terms

Fee to change the terms

€120

Paid now to get the shorter notice period.

Less to pay when leaving

€1,620

These are future bills avoided, not cash received. The fee is separate.

The shorter notice only takes effect when both sides agree and sign. This example assumes there are no other printer charges for leaving.

The fee

Can the shop pay for the change?

Before considering the fee, the shop chose to keep at least €2,800 of its €9,940.

Available before€9,940
Fee€120
Available after€9,820

Ströma Prints, after the fee

The fee leaves the €2,800 untouched. A fee that crossed that line would be refused.

The €120 fee passes this check. The shop still has to decide whether shorter notice is worth paying for.

The limits

There is more to check before signing.

Check these terms too.

The shop's other bills.

Rent and other bills still need paying. Adding up recorded bills does not show everything the business could lose.

Extra charges in the terms.

Read whether you could owe more than the stated amount. Record that alongside the bill.

Whether the printer can deliver.

Shorter notice cannot keep a supplier in business. The shop may still need a replacement.

Anything you promised to pay personally.

Record any promise to pay a business bill personally. Your own money may be at stake too.

What the shop can change.

The shop cannot know future orders. It can pay for shorter notice, so it owes less if it leaves. Both sides must sign the change.

That is the idea behind Lucid: change what you could owe while keeping the money you chose to protect. You decide whether the fee is worth paying.

Try your own fee
The assumptions and the sums
  • The printer's €180 minimum is owed every week, including weeks with no orders.
  • Twelve weeks × €180 = €2,160. Three weeks × €180 = €540. The difference is €1,620 in notice payments; the separate fee is €120.
  • €9,940 − €120 = €9,820. The shop chose to keep €2,800, leaving €7,020 above its line after the fee. A fee of €7,140 would leave exactly €2,800; a cent more would leave too little.
  • The shorter notice period only applies once the printer agrees and the new terms are signed. The example assumes no other printer charges on exit.

Lucid's method comes from the Incerto. The example applies that method to one agreement; it does not put a maximum on everything a business could lose.