Introduction
Setting up a contract with a client is an integral part of your freelance business. Even if it’s for friends, it’s still worth having a contract stipulating who is hired to do what, how much it will cost, and how long it will take to deliver. The contract is helpful for both sides of the transaction as both know precisely 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 look at Andy Clarke’s ‘Contract Killer’. It is great 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 a 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 essential to be clear with the client about what a completed project looks like and when you will be handing the site over. Try to control this as much 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. Giving a precise hourly rate for any post-completion changes they want to be made can be useful.