4 Reasons Why You Need To Start Using Contracts Right Now (Free Contracts Included)

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Contracts, contracts, contracts. People always tell you that you need to use them, and you may or may not have ignored their advice, but do you really know why you need to use them (aside from the obvious legal issues)?

Let me tell you a story: roughly 2 years ago, I had a web design client who was referred to me. I met with this client at her home-based hair salon and began showing her my web design portfolio, which she liked so she subsequently hired me to build her a custom website. At the time, I only used a very basic contract covering a few legal area (e.g., she owns the domain), but it didn't actually outline what the service plan was or go over anything else in detail.

Anyway, a few weeks later, I finished building the site, so I sent her an e-mail and she "loved the new site", but then she requested a few small changes to the website. At first, this wasn't an issue, so I went ahead and fulfilled the additional requests. However, after some 30-year old college student "web designer" started talking to her, she began requesting more & more changes that were also becoming difficult to implement without redesigning the entire website. Eventually, I contacted her and told her that I was no longer going to work on the website after the college student deleted everything to install an unmodified $30 Wordpress template over it (you can read the original thread from 2013 here. I received some great advice and a few good laughs from it).

After this situation, I revised all of my contracts to be more specific than they were before to prevent another issue like that one from happening again, and since then I've had very few issues with my clients. So, if that story wasn't a good enough reason for you start using contracts, here are 4 more reasons why you should start using them right now!

4 Reasons To Use Contracts​

Reason #1: You Can Prevent Legal Issues From Arising
This one was already obvious to most of you, so I'll keep it short. Using PPC management as an example (as most people become litigious when money is directly involved), if you were to take on the assignment of managing a client's Adwords account without a contract (that is, without establishing when money will be withdrawn from the client's account for the campaign or any third parties that will be involved in the campaign), a disgruntled or otherwise less-than-happy client can easily say you were siphoning funds from their account without their permission or giving others access to their funds. While of course this situation can be refuted with proof that the funds went directly to the campaign, using a contract can at least prevent client's from becoming unscrupulous.

Reason #2: You Can Use Them To Outline Your Service Plan
Instead of inundating your client with big, scary legal terms that they probably don't understand, you can instead use your contract to simply outline what you plan to do for them. This helps prevent confusion in the future between you and your client and it also provides you with a simple way to answer any questions the client may have as you can just point them to a specific section in your contract that answers the question. Additionally, you and your client can sit down, discuss, and review your plan and agree on any modifications before both of you sign the contract. Speaking of modifications...


Reason #3: You Can Prevent Clients From Surprising You With Extra (Unpaid) Modifications Or Work
Don't be surprised if this happens to you at least once, that is if it already hasn't. If you don't set limits in your contract and follow your outline strictly, your new client is going to take you on a ride, and I promise you that it won't be pleasant. This is probably one of the most important elements to include in your contract as many clients will try to squeeze as much work out of you as they can, and you may just go along with that work out of fear of losing that client if you don't have a written agreement prohibiting unpaid modification or extra work.

You can also use this as an opportunity to turn the tables and add a section into your contract where you can charge your client for any extra work they request.

Reason #4: It Helps Your Client Take You Seriously & Puts Them At Ease
Let's think about this from the client's perspective, but instead of using SEO as an example, I'll use a hypothetical communications platform called "jaloombaba" and a marketing service called "jaloombaba optimisation". Now, assume you're a small business owner who doesn't know much about jaloombaba outside of using it to communicate. You were recently contacted by a jaloombaba optimiser who wants to "take your business to the next level" using the platform, which piques your interest, so you set up a meeting with this purported jaloombaba specialist. After a nice friendly chat, you request to see a contract where you can learn more about marketing on jaloombaba and what the optimiser plans to do, but the optimiser just says, "Uh, I don't, like, have one, man. I, like, usually just get the payment first and then, uh, work on the jaloombaba optimisation, brah". This joker essentially just walked in, talked to you for a bit, and then requested money. Now, let me ask you, would you take the risk and hire this guy for a service you don't completely understand?

Free Contract Templates

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These contract templates were all used by me at one point in time (with most of them admittedly being taken from other sources and then modified a bit), but now I don't use most of them any more as I either no longer offer the service or I use different contracts for my business. You'll have to modify them yourself by adding your business name in them as well as any additional clauses. I'm also not a lawyer, so you use these contracts at your own risk.

• PPC Contract: http://www.mediafire.com/view/ljwx3wje8hsl2ga/PPC_Contract_Template.odt
• PPC Contract VirusTotal Scan: https://www.virustotal.com/en/url/9...f8f75ad8fae24e1082cc08d1/analysis/1442553673/

• (On-Page) SEO Contract: http://www.mediafire.com/view/d6aqadktwq911bj/SEO_Contract_Template.odt
• (On-Page) SEO Contract VirusTotal Scan: https://www.virustotal.com/en/url/f...5dcf6d471f2f860783d6b3fd/analysis/1442553704/

• Web Maintenance Contract: http://www.mediafire.com/view/4l3hu8d03uuf18y/Web_Maintenance_Contract.odt
• Web Maintenance Contract VirusTotal Scan: https://www.virustotal.com/en/url/7...2c83105c8b4a26e4f257cefc/analysis/1442553604/

• Web Design Contract: http://www.mediafire.com/view/rhhnsmzabvvcf7c/Web_Design_Contract.odt
• Web Design Contract VirusTotal Scan: https://www.virustotal.com/en/url/e...80642db90d9df027ebeb7157/analysis/1442553638/

• Contract Package: http://www.mediafire.com/download/wlldf17z9zboba2/Contract_Package.zip
• Contract Package VirusTotal Scan: https://www.virustotal.com/en/url/a...19a154225d5fd1be86e1b56b/analysis/1442553744/