Contracts

Introduction

Setting up a contract with a client is an important part of your freelance business. Even if it’s for friends, it’s still worth having a contract which clearly stipulates who is being hired to do what, how much it will cost, and how long it will take to deliver. The contract is useful for both sides of the transaction as both then know exactly what is happening and there should be no room for doubts.

If you are looking for a great and to-the-point contract template, you can take a look at Andy Clarke’s ‘Contract Killer’. What is great is that it isn’t written in legalese so both parties can understand what they are agreeing to.

Contracts

Scope Creep

It’s a common enough issue in web development that you’re halfway through a project and the client messages “could we just add…”. Depending on what they’re adding, this can change the scope of the project and means you need to update what will be delivered, how much it will cost, and how long it’ll take. The client then needs to sign off on these changes and understand that changes to the project’s scope have consequences.

It is important to stipulate what happens if the scope of the project was to change.

Payment Schedule

A simple system for setting up a payment schedule is to ask for 50% deposit before work begins and 50% on delivery. This is good for smaller projects but it does run into issues. At the start of the project, the client has to assume quite a bit of risk and trust that you won’t just walk off with their money. Nearing the end of the project, it is you - the freelancer - who assumes the most risk. What happens if they don’t pay the final 50%? It’s a common enough story that freelancers run into issues chasing up invoices, so make sure you have a clear plan.

An alternative method is to break up the payments over agreed upon milestones. The milestones depend on the project, but it can make sense for both parties that the payments are staggered so neither feels overly at risk.

Completed Project

It is important to be clear with the client: what a completed project looks like and when you will be handing the site over. Try make this as much in your control as possible so that you don’t have to wait around for them to decide when the project is over.

It’s also important to clearly spell out what will happen with the maintenance of the site after the project has been completed. It can be useful to give them a clear hourly rate for any post-completion changes they want made.