First Client: Need Tips and Advice

I will be meeting my first potential ORM client soon. The price for the service and other technicalities will be discussed along with a general introduction. One thing I'm worried about though is a contract. Should I have one ready for him to sign? If so, where should I go about getting one as I don't believe I have the skills to make one myself. Is a contract necessary? I'm quite young so I have very little experience with offline services even though I have been doing IM for a few years. Anything you think I need to know please tell me; I'd love to hear it.
Thanks.

Yes, have one ready. I go in offering two choices for my services, a "good" and a "better" one. This allows me to offer two prices, and I have contracts ready for each. I try to convince him that the "better" is the one to go for unless he seems to want value, then you try to close on the cheaper one. Worse case scenario I offer to do the "better" for the "good" package price. If they don't bite then they probably are too cheap for the service anyway and would be head aches anyway.

ThopHayt said:

Yes, have one ready. I go in offering two choices for my services, a "good" and a "better" one. This allows me to offer two prices, and I have contracts ready for each. I try to convince him that the "better" is the one to go for unless he seems to want value, then you try to close on the cheaper one. Worse case scenario I offer to do the "better" for the "good" package price. If they don't bite then they probably are too cheap for the service anyway and would be head aches anyway.

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Thank you, that's very helpful and I'll probably implement that strategy. I was already planning on offering a clean up fee for the negative reviews and then a recurring monthly fee for maintenance and bringing in additional positive reviews to get his business listed highest in the area for his business (pediatrics). One more thing: do you type up your contracts yourself or do you have a lawyer or someone of that nature do it?

Yes, a contract is necessary not only to protect yourself from litigation and unwarranted add-ons from the client, but to let the client know what will be done in the project. If you need a contract, search for one using Google and use the one you find as a template (like this one)to create your own contract.

As for other tips on handling a business meeting, you may find the advice in my thread called, "How I Made $3,000 On A Three-Day Business Trip", from March useful.

Zwielicht said:

Yes, a contract is necessary not only to protect yourself from litigation and unwarranted add-ons from the client, but to let the client know what will be done in the project. If you need a contract, search for one using Google and use the one you find as a template (like this one)to create your own contract.

As for other tips on handling a business meeting, you may find the advice in my thread called, "How I Made $3,000 On A Three-Day Business Trip", from March useful.

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Yep, a contract is a mutual guarantee for the job. You specify what you will do, and the client specifies how much he will pay