The Two Contracts You Need as a Freelancer to Protect Your Business

Freelancers without contracts are like unicyclists on a tightrope—thrilling until things go wrong.

Our goal is to bring you hyper valuable advice for growing your freelance business each week.

This week we’re talking about contracts. Yep, the boring legal stuff. But it matters.

Growth Hack: Grab our client contracts to make sure you’re protected (project contract + retainer contract) 💡

There are few things worse than starting a new project with a client, only to have the client introduce ‘scope creep’ - a practice whereby the client slowly adds in additional tasks to the initial project scope and expects you to complete them for the same pay.

That’s just one of the dreaded reasons you want to make sure you have solid contracts in place.

And sure, contracts are all official sounding and boring, but here are 5 reasons why you should care about them:

1. They set the correct expectations: Contracts provide clear guidelines on project scope, timelines, and expectations, minimizing misunderstandings.

2. They protect your IP (Intellectual Property): Contracts safeguard freelancers' intellectual property by defining ownership rights upon project completion.

3. They make sure you get paid: Contracts establish transparent payment terms, securing fair compensation and preventing payment disputes.

4. They legally protect your behind: Contracts include legal clauses that shield freelancers from potential liabilities and outline dispute resolution procedures.

5. Present you in a professional light: Well-drafted contracts showcase professionalism, building trust by delineating responsibilities and commitments clearly.

In the spirit of keeping things highly practical and valuable for you, I’ve already gone ahead and provided you with two contract templates you can use with your clients 👇

• Template 1: Use this for one-off projects
• Template 2: Use this one for ongoing retainer work

Disclaimer: We’re not lawyers, I’d recommend having a lawyer glance over the contracts to make they’re applicable to the local laws in your region.

Here’s what do do next 👇

1. Download whichever template you require based on whether you offer one-off projects, retainer contracts, or both.

2. Modify the yellow highlighted text in the contract to fit your business

3. Double-check the contract to make sure everything is applicable to your location. I’m Canadian, so you’ll see Canada referenced a few times.

4. Send it off to clients and get it signed. I recommend using a free e-signature tool like Signaturely. They’re a hoot and it works real well.

Tweet of the Week 🐦

Here Andy describes the number one thing clients are looking for in successful, reliable freelancers. Surprise-surprise, not all clients are scraping the bottom of the barrel looking for the cheapest freelancers to complete their projects.

In fact, clients are looking for reliability, here’s how Andy words it …

Link Love ❤️

Here are a few more links for you to check out when you’re not busy pitching for new clients or delivering your projects. I’ve never fanciest myself a master of persuasion, so to really drill the importance of freelance contracts into you, I’ve called on some backup:

👉 Why contracts matter for freelancers?

👉 Juli Bristi’s personal take on the freelance contractors and how they protect your rights

👉 Link to Signaturely for getting your contracts signed

That’s a wrap 👊

Here’s the broad strokes:

1. Freelance contracts matter. Use them. Installing them into your business should be priority number 1. Go do it. (👈 Yes, that was intentionally repetitive).

2. Check out the links for additional reading that I shared with you above. Those are curated articles. I highly recommend them.

3. Use a free e-signature tool like Signaturely to get your contracts signed.