as you may know, a legally binding contract requires several necessary elements: offer, acceptance, parties who have the legal capacity to contract (minors under 18 years old and people who are mentally incompetent do not have the legal capacity to enter into contracts), lawful subject matter, mutuality of agreement, valuable consideration, mutuality of obligation, and, in many cases, a writing. not all of these provisions will be included in every contract, and most contracts will include additional provisions that relate specifically to their particular subject matter. there are several common types of business contracts that people enter into every day. there are also employment contracts such as consulting agreements and non-compete clauses.