Instead of duct taping and piecemealing your contract together, what you need is one solid client contract that protects you, matches your working style, and sets the foundation for your entire business.
In this post, I’ll walk you through the essential sections your contract needs and why it’s the foundation for a thriving creative business.
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Your contract should match your working style
What I often see from creatives is that they can’t find a template that matches their working style. So they turn to Google and Frankenstein a bunch of clauses together to create their contract.
Or they download a contract template, but don’t enforce those sections that don’t match their workflow or values.
This process actually creates a lot of confusion because neither the creative nor the client completely 100% understands what’s going on.
Instead of forcing you to fit your contract or jamming a bunch of online clauses together, I think you should create a contract that matches your working style.
The reality is you created your business for freedom and flexibility. You should be able to work with the clients you want to work with. To earn money in a way that feels good to you.
And having a contract that doesn’t support you is actually a hindrance, not a help to that process.
So you need to create a contract that supports you and your business and protects you, not somebody else. You also don’t need a contract written by a lawyer who thinks they know better than you how to run your business.
So how do you do this?
The first step is thinking about your working style from start to finish and writing down how the ideal process works.
Then think about common hiccups that occur and predetermine the process you want to happen when things start to get off track.
(If you need some ideas, as part of this blog post series, I’ve broken down how to deal with common hiccups like: projects stalling out, late payments, reasserting boundaries, and refund or reschedule requests.)
Remember, the goal of a contract isn’t to prevent your client from screwing you over. The goal of a contract is to make sure you don’t unintentionally disappoint your client.
We all go into working relationships with certain assumptions, and the goal of your contract is to get everyone on the same page, by literally getting everyone on the same page.
And how you do that is by getting your process out of your head and onto something your client can read. So that your client can compare the assumptions they had in their heads about how the project would proceed with yours.
So the more you can get your process into your contract, the more likely it is that you and your client will have the same understanding about how things will go.
Ready to stop patching together contracts and start enforcing them with confidence? Join me inside Copy + Paste Legal Week, a free challenge designed to help you put this into action with email scripts you can use right away. Sign up below.
7 things your contract should include
The first thing your contract should include is a cover page, because the format of your contract will help solve some of your problems.
I’ve talked before about how a contract cover page can really set the tone for your client relationship. It helps keep projects on track because clients don’t have to hunt and peck and find the important details they care about. They’re able to see upfront and center what you need in order to have the outcome that they want from the situation.
Your client is hiring you because you are an expert. They believe that you can deliver them the outcome that you’ve shown. Either on your website, from your discovery call, or from a friend who referred them.
They believe that you can give them that outcome, and your cover page outlines the process required to get them there.
It tells them what you will give them (and what you need from them) to make that outcome happen. It explains how to keep projects from stalling out, momentum going, and what’s needed to deliver on the promise you made them when they hired you.
Finally, on your cover page, bullets are your best friend. The simpler and easier to read you can make it, the more likely it is that your client will understand the information you think is important.
The second thing your contract should include is the scope of work. With the scope of work, you want to not just explain what’s included, but what’s not included. If you allow for two revisions, state, “Two revisions are included. Additional revisions will be billed at $150 an hour.”
Another place where assumption gaps can show up is when you don’t spell out that your package doesn’t include something that’s commonly included by other service professionals like yourself. Maybe it’s included in a higher-tier package or as an add-on in your offerings. And if they’ve worked with another professional like yourself before, they might assume it’s included.
Third, you want to make sure you spell out everything related to payment, including:
- payment terms
- payment due dates
- late payment consequences
- what is (and isn’t) refundable
Fourth, outline the timeline, milestones, and feedback expectations (and consequences).
The fifth thing your contract should explain is intellectual property ownership and usage rights. Break down who owns what and what the other person can do with it.
In most cases, you’ll be keeping your copyrights. What is your client allowed to do? What are they not allowed to do?
If it’s a work-for-hire situation and they own the copyright, can you continue to use it in your portfolio? Can you use it to promote the kind of work you do?
Sixth, explain how cancellations and reschedules work. And if there is a difference between one-time requests and repeated requests.
Finally, you should plan for how to walk away gracefully. What’s the process if they are acting badly? What’s the process if it no longer makes sense? Can you walk away only for specific reasons or for no reason?
You should make sure your contract covers all seven of these topics.
But even if you nail them all perfectly, that doesn’t mean that clients aren’t gonna have questions or you’re not gonna run into hiccups. And often those happen over email. If you join me for Copy + Paste Legal Week, I’m going to give you five ready-to-use email scripts for the exact moments that most commonly come up. So that you have something to quickly copy and paste into the client’s email to respond to them. Sign up below.
Hi! I’m Kiff! I’m your friendly legal eagle (and licensed attorney).
My goal is to add ease to the legalese. And because I think basic legal resources should be available to every creative, I create a lot of free content.
If I’ve created something that has helped inject a little ease into your creative business and you would like to say “thank you”, you can make a contribution here.
If you’d like to hear more from me, I’d love to pop into your inbox every Friday morning to share additional ways to cut through the red tape and inject a little ease.
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